Adulteration & Contamination

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Olive … A Sensory Tour of the Mediterranean Miracle (SydHerbs)

Ian's SydHerbs presentation banner

Come and join me at SydHerbs next week (Thursday 11 May, 6pm for a 6:30pm start) as I take you on a photographic tour of olive groves and mill during harvest, talk about the health benefits of extra-virgin olive oil, smash some myths, and guide you through a tasting of 3 different ultra-premium, single varietal extra-virgin olive oils. It will be educational and a load of fun!

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Productive discussions at the first Natural Products Futures Forum

Michael Heinrich presenting at the Natural Products Futures Forum

At the end of this week I attended the inaugural Natural Products Futures Forum, hosted in Ballina and Lismore by Southern Cross University’s National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine. I was attending as a representative of Torrens University, providing an educational perspective to what turned out to be a very successful weekend of brainstorming.

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Are comfrey, coltsfoot and borage harmful to humans?

Graphical abstract showing key results from the research paper

For many decades now, unsaturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids have been known to be potentially harmful, causing specific types of liver and lung damage, and also being carcinogenic. However the question has long been “do the amounts in key medicinal plants warrant concern?”. Many regulatory authorities around the world think so, with some of these plants being restricted for medicinal usage. This research project set out to determine the level of evidence for harm from some of these plants.

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The downfall of Green & Black’s chocolate

I recently heard from a friend that Green & Black’s chocolate, once a company offering fine quality milk and dark chocolate, has started putting milk products in all of its range, even its dark chocolate. Today I had a look at the range on the shelf of a local store and sure enough, even their dark 85% block had milk products listed as ingredients.

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