Behind the Bottle: Who’s Looking Out for Herbal Quality?

Bill Rawls, MD • Septemeber 2026

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at the American Herbal Products Association Botanical Congress in Portland, Oregon.

If you’ve never heard of the American Herbal Products Association — usually called AHPA — you’re probably not alone.

But if you use herbal products, you should know they exist.

AHPA has been working behind the scenes for more than 40 years to raise standards throughout the herbal products industry. Its members include companies involved in virtually every step of bringing an herb from the field to the finished product — growers, suppliers, processors, manufacturers, and companies like Vital Plan that formulate and sell herbal products.

And that matters more than you might think.

What Does It Take to Make a Good Herbal Product?

When you pick up a bottle of an herbal supplement, there’s an entire supply chain behind it.

Someone has to grow or responsibly harvest the plant. The correct species and plant part have to be identified. The raw material has to be handled and stored properly. It must be tested for identity, purity, and contaminants. Extracts need to be manufactured consistently. And the finished product needs to be accurately labeled.

Quality can be compromised anywhere along that chain.

AHPA works across the industry to establish better practices for doing all of those things. It develops guidance for botanical identification, cultivation and harvesting, manufacturing, testing, labeling, and safety. It also provides resources that help companies comply with FDA regulations — and, in some instances, encourages industry standards that go beyond what federal regulations require.

In other words, AHPA helps responsible herbal companies hold themselves to a higher standard.

Bringing the Entire Herbal World to the Same Table

That’s what I found especially valuable about the Botanical Congress.

The people in the room represented virtually every part of the herbal industry. There were growers who spend their days thinking about soil, weather, harvesting, and the challenges of producing high-quality medicinal plants. There were scientists discussing botanical safety and new research. There were manufacturers, regulatory experts, product developers, and representatives from the FDA.

I was there representing Vital Plan and speaking about cellular health, botanical medicine, and longevity.

But what impressed me most was the bigger picture.

Everyone was talking to each other.

That’s important because creating a high-quality herbal product isn’t something any one company can do alone. We depend on growers, ingredient suppliers, testing laboratories, manufacturers, researchers, and regulators. Strong standards throughout that chain ultimately mean better products for consumers.

Why Vital Plan Supports AHPA

Vital Plan is a proud member of AHPA because quality has been central to what we do from the beginning.

Herbs are remarkably complex. Where and how a plant is grown matters. How it’s harvested matters. How an extract is produced matters. Testing and verification matter.

And what’s actually in the bottle matters.

Organizations like AHPA help move the entire industry forward by bringing together the people who grow herbs, study them, regulate them, manufacture them, and ultimately put them into consumers’ hands.

Most people will probably never know about that work.

But every time you reach for an herbal product, it’s good to know there are people behind the scenes working to make herbal medicine safer, more consistent, and better.

We’re proud to be part of that effort.

Learn more about the American Herbal Products Association