Gaia Herbs® Invited to Present at U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention Meeting October 23-24

Workshop will focus on genetic methods for enhancing quality control of botanical and other natural products

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Oct 23, 2014, 08:15 ET

BREVARD, N.C., Oct. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaia Herbs^® has been invited to present at a U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) workshop hosted today and tomorrow, October 23-24, at the agency's national headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. The event, entitled "DNA Methods for Quality Control of Botanical Products," is co-organized by several other government departments including the USDA, FDA, NIH-ODS, and also AuthenTechnologies, associated with the University of California, Berkeley.

Gaia will discuss their industry-leading, DNA-validated, botanical reference standards library and statistics-based identity program, developed by the company over the past three years. Their presentation will be on: "DNA-Validated Reference Materials and Their Use in a Chemometric-Based Botanical Identity Program."

According to Jeremy Stewart, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and VP of Scientific Affairs at Gaia Herbs, the company's commitment to purity, integrity and potency has made them pioneers in science-based standards. "The technical breakthroughs we've achieved have the potential to benefit the entire natural products industry and enable a higher level of safety, responsibility, and transparency for everyone," he said. "Our methods tell consumers exactly what's contained in the herbal products they purchase. We're working at the same level of scientific analysis and accuracy as CSI chemical fingerprinting."

Dr. Stewart will be presenting during Session 5 of the workshop on Friday, October 24 at 9 a.m., along with Timothy Murray, Ph.D., Gaia's Quality Assurance Senior Manager.

"Herbs and other botanical materials are extremely chemically complex, and can present significant challenges to confirm their proper identity and authenticity to quality control experts," said Mark Blumenthal, Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council, an independent research and education nonprofit organization. "Gaia Herbs is to be commended for its strong commitment to and investment in its leading-edge quality control program which uses some of the most modern analytical and confirmatory techniques currently available." Blumenthal will also be speaking at the USP event on "Economic Aspects of DNA Barcoding Technology." The keynote speaker will be Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., CEO of the Natural Products Association.

For more information on Gaia Herbs, visit: www.gaiaherbs.com.

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SOURCE Gaia Herbs