What does carbon-14 analysis reveal about "natural" garlic oil?

MIAMI, Florida, December 22, 2017 -- Beta Analytic, an ISO 17025-accredited natural products testing laboratory, detailed how garlic oil manufacturers can identify fraudulent products and further enhance their quality assurance measures in an article published in Nutraceuticals World. Global Operations Manager Jasmine Garside described how carbon-14 analysis can help resolve technical challenges facing the nutraceuticals industry by providing reproducible data verifying whether garlic oil is naturally sourced.

Beta Analytic Case Study: Is your Garlic Oil Natural?

The case study included four retail garlic oil samples claiming to be 100% natural and one artificial garlic oil sample for comparison purposes. The latter was clearly labeled and marketed as an artificial blend. Beta Analytic measured the carbon-14 content of each sample through accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and sent all five samples to independent labs for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Based on GC-MS results, all five samples demonstrated chemical profiles consistent with natural garlic oil. The carbon-14 results, however, was able to determine that three of the four "natural" garlic oils had petroleum-derived adulterants and only one sample was in fact 100% natural.

"Both GC-MS and carbon-14 analysis are reliable tools in detecting adulteration. GC-MS is a widely accepted method for characterizing essential oils such as garlic but it cannot verify whether the adulterant present in a sample is petroleum-derived or not. Only carbon-14 analysis can determine the exact percentage of petroleum-derived synthetics in a product. We highly encourage garlic oil manufacturers and distributors to have verifiable data to back up their 100% natural claims," Ms. Garside said.

Details of the case study can be found in Beta Analytic's article entitled "Quality Assurance Testing: Is your Garlic Oil Natural?" published in Nutraceuticals World's blog in November.

About Beta Analytic

Miami-based Beta Analytic is an ISO/IEC 17025:2005-accredited testing facility that uses carbon-14 analysis for natural product source testing on materials such as flavors, fragrances, essential oils, cosmetics and supplements. The test measures the percentage of the product sourced from natural (biomass) vs synthetic (petroleum-derived) ingredients. Through natural product testing, materials adulterated with petroleum derivatives can be identified. Beta Analytic has sample forwarding facilities in major cities around the world including North Sydney, Australia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Beijing, China; Nagoya, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; and London, UK. For details, visit www.betalabservices.com.

Contact:

Jasmine Garside
Beta Analytic Inc.
4985 S.W. 74th Court
Miami, FL 33155
Tel: (+1) 305-662-7760
Email: [email protected]