Ginkgo Biloba herbs from China found to contain shockingly high levels of toxic heavy metal lead

Monday, May 12, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: ginkgo biloba, heavy metals, lab results

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(NaturalNews) A Natural News Forensic Food Lab investigation has discovered that Ginkgo Biloba herbs imported from China contain shockingly high levels of the toxic heavy metal lead.

Click here to see the full lab results at Labs.NaturalNews.com.

Click here to watch the lab research video on YouTube.

These results show that some brands of ginkgo contain virtually zero lead, while others are heavily contaminated with lead, a toxic heavy metal linked to cancer, bone disorders and impaired brain function in children (among other side effects).

Ginkgo herbs imported from China heavily contaminated with lead

ICP-MS testing at our labs showed that Ginkgo Biloba herbs imported from China and sold by the bulk herbal company Starwest Botanicals (1) contained over 5 ppm lead, a shockingly high number that's ten times higher than the lead we've found in rice protein products. This level of lead contamination rates an "F" at www.LowHeavyMetalsVerified.org

Because Starwest is such a reputable supplier of quality products, it is my hope the company will conduct more in-house testing of the products they sell and reject herbs which are heavily contaminated with lead and other toxic metals. They may want to rate their herbal products using the system I've published at www.LowHeavyMetalsVerified.org

At the same time, Ginkbo Biloba herbal supplements sold by the Gaia Herbs company (2) and grown in the USA showed almost zero lead. I've tested many products from Gaia Herbs and so far they've all been remarkably free of heavy metals.

Standardized Ginkgo Biloba supplements purchased at the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas also showed virtually zero lead contamination. This is good news, considering that other products sold by Whole Foods, including rice protein products, are consistently contaminated with toxic heavy metals.

Ginkgo supplements offered under the brand names Nutrigold, Nature's Bounty and Swanson also showed very little lead in our testing, while Ginkgo leaf products from Frontier and Ginkgo Biloba supplements from NOW Foods showed significantly higher concentrations of lead. Keep in mind that we can only speak to the lot numbers we tested, and other lots may vary significantly from the lots we purchased.

Click here to see the complete lab results at Labs.NaturalNews.com.

Lead is a toxic heavy metal linked to cancer, brain damage, bone damage and more

Lead is toxic to human biology and the science on the harmful effects of lead is irrefutable: lead causes lowered IQs in children, bone disorders, cognitive decline in adults and even contributes to cancer. Click here to learn more about lead contamination.

The fact that such high levels of lead are found in an herbal product which many people take to enhance their cognitive function is downright alarming. Even if the Ginkgo Biloba herb does function as promised, the accumulation of lead in the body may cause precisely the opposite effect intended by those taking the herb. Lead can diminish brain function and literally make you cognitively impaired.

Click here to learn more about the damage caused by lead.

How much ginkgo would you have to take to cause a problem? Consider this: California Prop. 65 limits daily lead intake to just 0.5 micrograms from any one dietary supplement. If you took just one gram of ginkgo lead containing 5 ppm lead, you would ingest over 1,000% more lead than allowed per day under Prop 65. For someone taking contaminated herbs on a daily basis, the total intake of lead over a month or a year can be extremely alarming and possibly very harmful to their health.

How does lead get into Ginkgo herbs?

Lead appears in ginkgo herbs because of industrial contamination of soils and irrigation water used to grow ginkgo herbs in countries like China. Ginkgo, like many other herbs, absorbs lead and other heavy metals during plant growth. When soils are contaminated from industrial fallout or contaminated irrigation water, that contamination inevitably ends up in the plants grown in those soils.

Click here to watch my video explaining industrial contamination of soils and irrigation water.

China is so heavily polluted with toxic heavy metals that the Chinese government recently declassified a once-secret report admitting that 20% of the country's farms are heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic.

We are now seeing this contamination appearing in superfoods, herbal supplements and other health products imported from China. While lead contamination cannot be detected with the naked eye, it cannot escape detection by the high-end ICP-MS atomic spectroscopy instrumentation used in the Natural News Forensic Food Lab. Our instrumentation is identical to the instrumentation used at university labs and even by the FDA.

Natural News has also found alarming lead contamination in organic rice protein products grown in China and other nations, then sold in the USA as "raw, organic rice protein" at health food retailers like Whole Foods.

Should you stop taking Ginkgo Biloba herbs?

In a nutshell, no. Ginkgo Biloba is a very effective herb, but you need to make sure the ginkgo you're taking is clean. I support clean herbal supplements and have written about their benefits for years. Here are some tips for getting clean herbs:

Tip #1) Subscribe to my email newsletter (below) and you'll receive daily email alerts with breaking news on herbs and superfoods found to be either clean or contaminated with heavy metals.

Tip #2) Check the lab results at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs and see what our tests have discovered. We publish these results for free, in the public interest, to help enhance food safety and public awareness.

Tip #3) Ask the manufacturer! To find out how much lead is in a product you've purchased, call the manufacturer and give them the lot number printed on the product. They should be able to tell you the heavy metals testing results for each lot number. (Under FDA regulations, they are required to have heavy metals tests on file for each production lot, although there are no FDA limits regarding how high levels metals are allowed to be in products other than children's candy.)

If the manufacturer can't tell you the heavy metals levels found in their products, that's a huge red warning flag that you should probably stop buying products from that company. After all, if they aren't testing their own products, how can they possibly know what's in them? (And isn't it highly irresponsible to sell products to the public without testing them yourself first?)

Keep watching Natural News for more heavy metals testing results on popular foods, superfoods, herbal supplements and more.

Sources for this article include:
(1) http://www.starwest-botanicals.com
(2) http://www.gaiaherbs.com