Glyphosate, sold under the name RoundUp, has been used as a pesticide in the U.S. since 1974. It is also used to dry crops out before harvesting, the press release notes. In the years since it has been made available, information has come to light suggesting that it may cause cancer and kill honeybees. WHO has stated that it is carcinogenic to humans, and multi-million dollar lawsuits have found that it caused cancer in humans.
Related: Core Human Gut Bacteria May Be Sensitive to Glyphosate Pesticide Tolerance Regs for Herbs and Spices Incorporate AHPA Recs Sabinsa Granted Patent in Mexico on Boswellin PS
In October the company began testing for residual herbicides in 20 nutraceutical ingredients as a routine practice, and now Sabinsa is widening the scope to all products the company sells. Sabinsa measures both glyphosate and its major metabolite, AMPA; glyphosate is rapidly converted to AMPA after absorption in soil. The total of these two is reported as ‘glyphosate’ in the test results. The press release notes that spices must be below 7ppm and herbs below 0.2ppm.“The method development of these products is very challenging and time consuming, requiring skilled techniques,” said Sabinsa Founder and Chairman Dr. Muhammed Majeed in the press release. “Given Sabinsa’s mission to improve human health, confirming purity of the materials we sell makes sense.”
