Like many natural supplement ingredients, where one is from and the type or variety matter; it could be the difference between something having an effect and less than. That can be the case with the adaptogen ashwagandha, which can be found throughout the market in different standardizations and even parts of the plant itself. A new law has now been introduced regarding the part of ashwagandha used, specifically in India, where it has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries.
India’s Ministry of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) has set a directive that only ashwagandha root can be used in any consumer supplement, making the inclusion of ashwagandha leaf or even a blend of root and leaf prohibited. It applies to manufacturers, sellers, and exporters, and it follows years of safety concerns around the leaf, due to it containing higher levels of potentially problematic compounds, which had been flagged by authorities back in 2021.
This is quite a major development for ashwagandha supplementation, as again, it has long been used and produced in India, so for the country to introduce a ban on specifically ashwagandha leaf, it does have some weight to it. The directive also instructs finished products in any format, containing ashwagandha, to now list the part of the plant it comes from, whether that be root or leaf, although, since leaf has effectively been made illegal in this situation, consumers will only be seeing root on labels.
