Botanical authentication and certification for consumer safety

Botanical authentication has to be considered a fundamental step to guarantee the consumer safety of botanical food supplements. Nowdays, National and International Pharmacopoeia as well as EMEA, ESCOP, and WHO commissions provide monographs on several medicinal and aromatic plants to get information on their traditional uses and quality control guidelines. EFSA compendium establishes the list of medicinal and aromatic plants which it is possible to include in botanical food supplements sold in the European market. Due to the enhancing industrial interest consistent with the continuous customer's trusted approach to "natural products", the scientific research community has required urgently to provide suitable protocols and procedures in the quality control of the plant raw material and derivatives during the whole productive and marketing chains. Multidisciplinary research studies combining botanical, agronomic, and phytochemical analysis should be promoted in order to guarantee important results in the establishment of feasible and effective quality control procedures, international certification and, consequently, in the identification of customers' health risks.