Ashwagandha Under Fire: Quality, Science, and the Fight Against Misinformation

Ashwagandha has become a billion-dollar category, and with that growth has come scrutiny, regulatory noise, and a wave of misinformation that threatens to undermine an herb with thousands of years of traditional use and over 130 clinical studies behind it.

In this episode, ITC CEO Len Monheit sits down with Blake Ebersole, founder and president of NaturPro Scientific, to unpack what’s really happening with ashwagandha. From the Indian Ministry of Commerce’s export ban on leaf products to European regulatory flags and concerning case reports, Blake breaks down why most of these issues trace back to quality failures, and not the plant itself.

They dig into the tension between traditional Ayurvedic use and modern botanical science, why withaferin A being present in both leaf and root doesn’t make either unsafe, and how the supply chain, from supplier to contract manufacturer to brand, too often fails consumers and the category. Blake also shares the work behind the Ashwagandha Standards Alliance, a coalition of responsible suppliers working to get ahead of the crisis with science-backed, transparent practices.