Australian study highlights medical label inaccuracies

According to a press release from the University of Adelaide, new research suggests that Australian herbal remedies could benefit from better regulation and labeling.

Right now, it appears that the majority of the natural supplements that are available in that area could be wrongly labeled or otherwise not compliant with the law, according to information from one study.

That’s the word from Dr. Ian Musgrave, who said in the release that the majority of the samples seem to suggest a big problem with the way that these products are distributed. Among the other findings, the study determined that these products had inconsistent descriptions of their contents on their websites.

“More than two-thirds of the 121 products we surveyed were in some way not compliant for sale,” Musgrave said. “That is a major concern for the community as well as for health professionals, with confusion about what is really contained in herbal medicines.” Later on in the release he says that “there is a lack of quality information about herbal remedies.”

In an article for The Conversation, Musgrave published some of the data obtained in the study, and also said that this lack of compliance is actually similar to what they expected before beginning, based on other reports.

All the same, medicine labels for nutritional supplements and herbal remedies need to be constantly updated and given accurate descriptors, or else they run the risk of getting the consumer in danger, not to mention the non-compliant product’s manufacturer. Because some of these items might be misinterpreted by customers, their labels have a particular burden of clarity.