The alarms first sounded last year in a small upstate New York town when a public school teacher noticed some of her students nodding off in class.
Local authorities quickly determined the root of the problem: small glass vials of ginseng extract, an herbal product long revered in China and recently popularized in the United States as a key to health and longevity.
But the product, touted as a treatment for everything from the common cold to diabetes and cancer, had an unexpected side effect. Besides ginseng , officials found that the tiny vials contained an unadvertised ingredient- alcohol. Taken in large enough doses, it could make a youngster drunk.
Now, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has issued a nationwide alert to draw attention to the potency of liquid ginseng extract.
ATF investigators have tested 55 different brands of liquid ginseng imported from China. Only seven were alcohol-free. In fact, the ATF found some of the vials tested out at 68 proof, nearly as high as some kinds of hard liquor.
"It was pretty potent stuff," said one ATF official in Washington, noting that some of the vials were even packaged with a straw.
Throughout New Jersey and the rest of the country, the bottles are sold at convenience stores, delis, gas stations and markets, often placed next to chewing gum and candy at the checkout counter.
An official at the U.S. Customs Service in New York said the importation and sale of such products, which bring in millions of dollars annually, has become a "significant public health problem."
"Teenagers have picked up on the fact that they can walk into any health food store and purchase a product which will give them a very nice buzz," said Barry Braverman, an import specialist for the Customs Service at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
"They can buy it without getting in trouble, and if their parents walk into their room and see it, they think the kid's into health food," he said. "It's noot like finding a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the kid's room."
James Zammillo, area supervisor for the ATF's New Jersey region, said reports of ginseng extract abuse had been received from New York City as well as upstate New York. The agency has been working with the Customs Service to intercept shipments of the high-proof herbs as a violation of federal import-labeling laws.
The vials are normally a little more than one-third of an ounce, and go for about $1 apiece. The alcohol, experts say, is used both to prevent contamination and as an agent to extract the active ingredients from the ginseng root, which is often packaged inside the vial. Officials say the concern is with the liquid extract, not the popular powdered variety.
As the popularity of ginseng products has grown, the sale of alcohol-rich bottles has spread. A check by The Star-Ledger found the containers of alcohol-laced herbal remedies being sold at a large number of convenience stores, health food shops and gas station markets in North Jersey.
In most cases, store operators said they were unaware the vials contained alcohol, and one described the extract as a "sort of a Chinese vitamin." A convenience store clerk in Morris County said it was a popular item, with the store selling 50 to 60 vials a week from the checkout counter.
"It's like a health tonic," said another clerk at a store in Mercer County. "Young and old, everybody buys it." But as to what is actually in the vials, most store operators said they hadn't a clue.
An employee of the Ark deli in Newark said he was familiar with ginseng as a product that helps build stamina and energy, but added the store has a strict policy of not selling the vials to youngsters.
New Jersey officials said they had no reports of any complaints. Both the state Division of Consumer Affairs and the Division of Alcohol Beverage Control reported they didn't know of any action being taken to curb sales. State school board officials said tthey were also unaware of any problems among students.
But John Kriger, deputy executive director of the Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, said he has received reports from treatment centers of persons "high-dosing" on ginseng . He said his office had not received any complaints of widespread use by schoolchildren.
Though there are no regulations in New Jersey governing the sale of ginseng , many other states have taken strong regulatory steps.
Since the New York incident was reported last summer, that state's Department of Agriculture issued a recall on the high-proof herbal product. In December, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued a warning to convenience store operators and cautioned that sale of the products to minors is as punishable under the law as the sale of any other alcoholic product.
The Texas Department of Health last September called for a halt to the sale and distribution of the alcohol-laced products and said some of the ginseng vials had a potency "three times that of beer."
The basic problem, health officials stressed, is that the labels on the products- many of which are imported from China- make no mention of the alcohol content. Even before the ATF alert was issued, one of the nation's largest health food chains, General Nutrition Centers, voluntarily removed ginseng products containing alcohol from their shelves at stores throughout the country.
In addition to being a way for underage drinkers to surreptitiously purchase alcohol, authorities said they are also concerned because persons with sensitivity to alcohol might unwittingly consume the product unaware of the risk.
ATF officials say that in addition to requesting that Customs hold up shipments of products known to contain alcohol, they have asked importers and distributors to recall and reformulate the products to avoid the problem.
- BY : Robert Rudolph - Star-Ledger Staff
- SOURCE : The Star-Ledger Newark, NJ1998.04.30
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