Overview

According to Health Canada, 71% of Canadians use some form of natural health product (NHP) as part of their health care regime—vitamins and minerals, herbal remedies, homeopathic medicines, traditional medicines, probiotics, and other products like amino acids and essential fatty acids.

Whether a NHP is taken in the form of a bulk plant substance, capsule, tablet, liquid extract, or food format, it needs to be safe, effective and of high quality. For this reason, it is important that analytical methods are developed to determine the integrity of NHPs sold for consumption.

Research conducted at BCIT's Natural Health & Food Products Research Group (NRG) involves the investigation into a variety of NHP and food issues. These include the determination of toxic components and contaminants, the quantification of marker compounds, the analysis of medicinal preparations used in clinical studies, product development, and manufacturing practices.

For more information on the applied research and development conducted by BCIT’s Natural Health & Food Products Research Group (NRG), contact Paula Brown: paula_brown@bcit.ca