Getting to the Root of the Matter: Challenges and Recommendations for Assessing the Safety of Botanical Dietary Supplements.

The National Toxicology Program's (NTP) mission is "to evaluate agents of public health concern, by developing and applying the tools of modern toxicology and molecular biology." Botanical dietary supplements (BDS) represent agents of public health concern due to widespread exposure to high doses, a lack of safety data for most products, variable quality, and reports of adverse events. This commentary will address lessons learned in NTP testing activities with BDS and recommendations for moving forward.