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” on Sunday, April 19, 2026, from 12:00-4:00 PM CT in Oxford, Mississippi, as part of the International Conference on the Science of Botanicals (ICSB). This interactive short course will offer…
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 PT Evaluating the hepatotoxic potential of Green Tea and Kava Root Extract in primary human hepatocytes – presented by Kirsten Eckstrum, FDA Tuesday 24 March 1:00 – 1:15 pm PT…
11th German Pharm-Tox Summit
17 – 20 March 2026 The Botanical Safety Consortium will have a poster presentation on Thursday, March 19th at the 11th German Pharm-Tox Summit. Poster Number: P265Title: The Botanical Safety Consortium – advancing botanical safety through collaborative innovationsPresenter: Olaf Kelber (Bayer) Go to Meeting Website
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 risk between herbal products and pharmaceutical medicines used concurrently for disease management in Blantyre, Malawi.” This work was led by researchers at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences with input from…
New publication: Dose-response assessment of neuroactive botanical extracts and their bioactive constituents using microelectrode array (MEA) recordings in rat primary cortical cultures
The Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) has published a new study titled “Dose-response assessment of neuroactive botanical extracts and their bioactive constituents using microelectrode array (MEA) recordings in rat primary cortical neurons” in a special issue for the Botanical Safety Consortium in Pharmaceutical Biology. This work was led by the Westerink Lab at Utrecht University with…
New publication: From Vision to Reality: Five Years of the Botanical Safety Consortium
The Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) was launched in 2019 to unite scientists from government, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations in advancing the safety evaluation of botanicals as complex mixtures. A new paper, From Vision to Reality: Five Years of the Botanical Safety Consortium, reflects on the consortium’s progress and outlines what comes next. Over its…
New publication: Developing an approach for evaluating the cardiotoxic potential of botanicals
Botanical supplements are widely used but often lack rigorous safety testing – especially for potential cardiotoxicity. A new publication from the HESI Botanical Safety Consortium’s Cardiotoxicity Working Group outlines a human-relevant strategy using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to assess cardiac risks of botanicals. These include the use of in vitro assays such as microelectrode arrays…
Botanical Safety Consortium 2025 Annual Meeting
Event Recap • 2025 BSC Annual Meeting • 5-6 November 2025 Day 1 Recordings Join HESI Global’s Botanical Safety Consortium for its 2025 BSC Annual Meeting, a two-day virtual event advancing the science of botanical safety assessment. Day 1: Open to all and will feature updates from working groups on topics like genotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, and…
New publication: A multi-detector analytical approach for characterizing complex botanical extracts: a case study on ashwagandha.
A multi-detector analytical approach for characterizing complex botanical extracts: a case study on ashwagandha. Sica et al. Anal Bioanal Chem (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-025-06006-8 Ensuring the safety and authenticity of botanical supplements starts with understanding what’s inside. In a new case study on ashwagandha, the HESI Botanical Safety Consortium showcases a multi-detector analytical platform designed to do…
2025 Personal Care Products Council Science Symposium & Expo
29 October 2025 HESI Global’s Connie Mitchell presents at the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) Science Symposium & Expo on October 29, 2025. Her talks is titled “Rooted in Science: Best Practices for Botanical Safety Assessment.” This session will spotlight the scientific advances and safety evaluation strategies developed through the Botanical Safety Consortium, a multi-sector initiative enhancing the…
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).
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Our current charge is to evaluate the suitability of assays for botanicals as complex mixtures.
Latest News
BSC at SOT 2022
March 27-31st, 2022 The Botanical Safety Consortium presented at the 2022 Society of Toxicology meeting, which was held virtually and in person in San Diego, CA March 27-31,…
Botanical Safety Consortium Stakeholder Council Webinar Series February 22, 2022 @ 11am EST
Chemical Safety of Phytomedicines – Perspectives for in vitro testing strategies? The Botanical Safety Consortium hosted an open webinar on Tuesday 22 February 11 am -12 pm ET.…
A public-private partnership to enhance the botanical safety toolkit
Botanical dietary supplement and herbal medicine use is increasing both in the United States and worldwide. Products made from botanicals can be variable in chemical composition, with many…
Botanical Safety Consortium Annual Meeting 2021
BSC 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting June 2021 Welcomes & Objectives (Connie Mitchell, HESI) Botanical Safety Consortium Introduction & Updates (Dr. Cara Welch, US FDA) Keynote 1: The hERG Screen Project:…
Session at ICSB 2021
20th Annual Oxford ICSB March 28th – 30th, 2022 The Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals is an annual meeting to discuss approaches for post market…
2020 Virtual SOT Session
“Applying Modern Toxicology to Botanical Dietary Supplements” Click to access PDFs of the presentations: Applying Modern Toxicology to Botanical Dietary Supplements. Michelle Embry (HESI, Washington, DC) Chemical Analysis: The…
Botanical researchers aim to fill gap in safety testing
Of the approximately 28,000 plants that have medicinal properties, only a few have been assessed for safety. Scientists discussed an ambitious effort to fill that gap at the first public…
Botanical Safety Taken on by New Consortium (NIH Record)
Looking to address concerns about the safety of botanicals, NIEHS joined forces with FDA and the nonprofit Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) to form the Botanical Safety…
Botanical safety taken on by new consortium
Looking to address concerns about the safety of botanicals, NIEHS joined forces with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the nonprofit Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) to…
