Study that found colchicine in ginkgo supplements was
“flawed”
Doubt has been cast over a recent study from the United
States that found that Ginkgo biloba supplements contained colchicine.
The original study, which will be published in the
September issue of Chemical Research in Toxicology, involved 24
pregnant women and attributed the presence of colchicine in placental
blood to the use of the herbal supplement Ginkgo biloba.
However, independent laboratory analyses of five
ginkgo sources using three different methods (including that used in the
original study) found no colchicine in any of the samples.
The original study has been criticised by US experts
because the levels of colchicine found in the placental blood samples
were above the lethal level for both mother and baby. In addition, the
women who took part in the study but did not take ginkgo were also found
to have detectable levels of colchicine in placental blood samples. Independent
reviewers have asked where this could have come from.
Joseph Betz, president for scientific and technical
affairs at the American Herbal Products Association, says that colchicine
is not a constituent of the ginkgo plant and describes the study results
as “seriously flawed”.
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