The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Silver Spring, MD, has revised a previous trade requirement regarding how the word “extract” may be used in labeling of herbal ingredients. In October 2008 AHPA established a restriction against the use of the word “extract” to describe dehydrated plant materials that have not been subject to additional processing other than size reduction, such as cutting or milling. This initial policy was adopted in response to reports of dehydrated but otherwise unprocessed herbs, such as hoodia stem (Hoodia gordonii), being marketed, for example, as Hoodia gordonii extract 20:1. The revised policy also prohibits the use of such ratios on herbal ingredients that are not processed by certain extraction processes. The policy states that quantitative extraction ratios (e.g., 4:1) are not used to represent the ratio between the fresh and dried weight of an herb, or on any product that is not, in fact, an extract. To remain in good standing, AHPA members must comply with the new trade requirement on the labeling of extracts by Sept. 11, 2010. The Board also voted to adopt the following guidance policy on extract labeling: Any non-liquid herbal extract that discloses a quantitative extraction ratio stated as a ratio of two numbers (e.g., 4:1) represents the first number as the weight of starting plant material and the second number as the weight of the finished extract produced from the starting plant material. Information on the condition of the starting material should be indicated when it is fresh and may be indicated when it is dried.