A public-private partnership to improve botanical safety

BOTANICAL SAFETY CONSORTIUM

The Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) was officially convened in November 2019, as the result of a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the non-profit Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI).

Key actions

Our current charge is to evaluate the suitability of assays for botanicals as complex mixtures.

The BOTANICAL SAFETY CONSORTIUM will provide a sound scientific basis for integrating existing botanical safety & toxicity information with the latest toxicological tools. 

This multi-partite, multi-stakeholder international effort will bring together key scientific experts to enhance the botanical safety toolkit and bring clarity to botanical dietary ingredient assessments.

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Toxicology 101 for Botanicals & Natural Products: A Hands-On Short Course at ICSB 2026

      19 April 2026 The Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) is offering a special training course titled “Cultivating Safety: Toxicology 101 for Botanicals and Natural Products”…

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Society of Toxicology 2026 Annual Meeting and ToxExpo

22 – 25 March 2026 The Botanical Safety Consortium will be attending SOT 2026 in San Diego, CA, USA. Presentations Tuesday 24 March 9:15 am…

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New publication: An exploratory evaluation of the interaction risk between herbal products and pharmaceutical medicines used concurrently for disease management in Blantyre, Malawi

🌿 The Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) has released a timely new study as part of its Global Outreach Program: “An exploratory evaluation of the interaction…

Engage with a broad group of global stakeholders to leverage the best scientific approaches

Establish the appropriate levels of chemical characterization for complex botanical substances

Identify pragmatic, fit-for-purpose, in vitro & in silico assays to evaluate botanical safety

Evaluate the application of these tools via comparison to the currently available safety information

Integrate these tools and approaches into a framework that can facilitate robust evaluation of botanical substances

HESI is a non-profit, 501c3 charitable organization that convenes leading scientists from the public and private sector to identify emerging health challenges and solutions, translates science from research to application, and enhances the protection of human and the environment health worldwide.

For more information, please contact: botanicalsafety@hesiglobal.org.