Speaker: Mark Blumenthal. The chemically complex nature of herbs frequently requires additional quality control in herbal raw materials, teas, extracts, and phytomedicines. In the past thirty years, there have been numerous cases of accidental misidentification of botanicals. In addition, there is the practice of intentional adulteration, where raw materials are diluted or may be “spiked" to create a false sense of quality. There is also the issue of excessive residual levels of industrial solvents in botanical extracts. This presentation reviews these quality control challenges, exemplified by analysis of skullcap, grapefruit seed, bilberry and black cohosh extracts.