NaturPro Scientific

NaturPro Scientific We ask the hard questions about natural products, helping clients navigate science, quality and regulatory reality.

We’re building Fearless Naturals USA, a trust-first, highly curated, direct-sourced ingredient marketplace

05/26/2026

You can’t make everyone happy if your job is to tell people things they don’t want to hear.

05/24/2026

Milkweed: not just for monarchs

05/24/2026

A million Memorial Day mulberries.

Indy friends, now’s the time to start your garden! If you’ve never done it before, my friend David is ready to help. Che...
05/23/2026

Indy friends, now’s the time to start your garden!

If you’ve never done it before, my friend David is ready to help. Check out what can get started in your backyard (or front!)

NaturPro Scientific LLC has a love-hate relationship with supplement label reviews. Here’s 13 reasons why.1. We charge a...
05/23/2026

NaturPro Scientific LLC has a love-hate relationship with supplement label reviews. Here’s 13 reasons why.

1. We charge a flat rate that ends up requiring more time than we charge for.

2. So-and-so already reviewed it.

3. We always end up reviewing more revisions than anticipated or promised.

4. It’s going to the printer “tomorrow”. (No, it isn’t.)

5. The pdf isn’t a printed proof. (We never get the printed proof.)

6. No version control

7. The brand hasn’t received a specification from the manufacturer to actually match it.

8. Is there an allergen statement that comes with the label? Yeah, right.

9. The label is created at the wrong time in the production sequence (too early, too late).

10. The graphic designer misses 20% of all instructions, on average.

11. There’s always at least one last-minute marketing claim added to a revision. (Who added it and why? No one knows.)

12. Typos. (Am I the only one who can spell around here?)

13. And lastly, there’s uneven (read: absent) rule enforcement on many FDA label rules, making us have to spend additional time being risk assessors and competitor label-comparators than rule appliers.

-—

The reasons I love label reviews?

A. To help people who need it, and who would look stupid without it.

B. So teach clients what a label is supposed to look like, so they don’t hire me for the next one.

C. I can’t think of any more.

I got an hour to talk about the truth behind Ashwagandha on PricePlow last week. Here’s a summary…Ashwagandha has been s...
05/22/2026

I got an hour to talk about the truth behind Ashwagandha on PricePlow last week. Here’s a summary…

Ashwagandha has been safely used for thousands of years, and more than 130 human studies exist on both root and leaf.

It isn’t suddenly unsafe. What’s really happening is more complicated.

Ashwagandha used to be a smaller herb in the supplement world. Now it is a $1.3 billion market.

When that happens, problems show up.

More suppliers jump in.
More brands want cheap material.
More products get rushed to market.
More shortcuts happen.

That doesn’t mean the herb is bad. It just means the market needs better controls and standards.

——

One of the biggest arguments right now is about ashwagandha root versus leaf. Some people are trying to make it as root good, leaf bad.

But that’s not what the science says.

Give this one a listen if you’re interested in the truth behind ashwagandha…

Scientists don’t write papers for awards. We just hope that someone will eventually read them and learn something new an...
05/22/2026

Scientists don’t write papers for awards.

We just hope that someone will eventually read them and learn something new and useful.

So it was a surprise to see a review I co-authored on dietary heme iron awarded Editor’s Choice from Nutrients Journal, with more than 22,000 reads in the past year.

Congrats to my co-authors Douglas Kalman PhD RD, Susan Hewlings and Alexis Madelyn-Adjei and thanks for contributing to this relatively underappreciated area of knowledge about the sources and fate of iron in the body from actual food.

05/18/2026

Some phrases sound harmless, and that’s what makes them terrifying.

In supplement quality and regulatory work, the scariest stories start with a sense of comfort.

“We’ve never had a problem.”

“We’re certified.”

“That’s what the supplier said.”

“We’re just waiting on documents.”

“It should be an easy double-check.”

These are all lullabies sung while an intruder waits in the closet.

——

And they work — right up until the customer complaints, the failed tests, the FDA inspections, the rejected lots, the recall discussions, and the lawyer invoices.

The horror is rarely one giant or intentional mistake, but a usually a small omission...

Like, no one had a good supplier qualification procedure — or it wasn’t followed.

Or, nobody independently checked whether the test results were accurate.

Maybe production overruled the quality department recommendation..

Or the GMP certification gave everyone false confidence.

And then everyone acts surprised when the monster comes knocking.

—-

In supplements, the monster usually has a very boring name, like:

Documentation gap. Spec omission. Invalid method. Claim lacks substantiation. Supplier wasn’t verified.

None of it comes from Hollywood, but still plenty scary.

What natural compound is consumed in billions of doses in supplements and foods every year – but is now the victim of a ...
05/13/2026

What natural compound is consumed in billions of doses in supplements and foods every year – but is now the victim of a ‘toxicity narrative’?

That’s Withaferin A — found in ashwagandha root, leaves, stems and fruits.

Withaferin A is the parent structural compound of withanolides and withanosides, and is part of the natural, full spectrum of the plant’s phytochemistry.

It is also part of every ashwagandha clinical study and toxicology study.

While it’s slightly lower as a percentage dry weight in root than in leaf, it’s also safe to say that the growing, harvesting and processing into extract (along with how it is measured in these materials) impact its amount in products more than the plant part.

As a result, Withaferin A should not be treated as a leaf-only contaminant, and certainly not a stand-alone proof of danger.

——

Published plant-part work has reported withaferin A at roughly 0.3–0.5 mg/g in root and 1-2 mg/g in leaf. So yes, leaf contributes more withaferin A. But not by much — and root contributes too.

Here’s the kicker – a meaningful portion of “root-only” labeled ashwagandha sold over the past 20 years actually contained root+leaf material.

And many of the clinical and safety studies did too - even if it was not disclosed in those studies.

That means that much more withaferin A has been proven as safely consumed than the root-only narrative would have us think.

This is why the “root-good-leaf-bad” debate needs to grow up.

The real issue – and the real standard – is simple:

Disclosed plant parts and manufacturing processes. Validated analytical methods for standardization. Clear warnings for vulnerable populations. And no black-box chemistry.

We all deserve better than fear-based chemistry that conflicts with science and reality.

And so does this traditional, useful and safe plant.

Images: https://lnkd.in/eehq9ivB?
—-

I haven’t updated the key pages on the NaturPro Scientific LLC website in years. Over time, that meant broken links, mis...
05/13/2026

I haven’t updated the key pages on the NaturPro Scientific LLC website in years.

Over time, that meant broken links, missing fonts, and outdated plugins galore. It was time for an update.

When it came to the core values section on the About page, I thought about when I originally wrote these.

It was soon after starting up, and observing how some consultants operate. I didn’t want to be ‘that guy’ (or girl).

Now that I’m older and somewhat wiser (and it might be a few years until I get back to this page) — I wondered if I should tone it down a little.

But then I thought — what is a company if it’s values and standards get watered down over time?

So I doubled down - just a little shorter and sharper this time..

——

Why We’re a Little Different:

We work hard to address client needs without taking more time than necessary.

We come prepared, but we also dig deeper.

We check sources, assumptions, documentation, methods, suppliers, claims, and context.

We identify issues early, and develop practical solutions before small problems become expensive ones.

We are transparent and objective about our views. We call it as we see it.

We are loyal to our clients and honor client-consultant confidentiality.

We do not financially benefit from recommending one ingredient, supplier, manufacturer, lab, or service provider over another.

We adapt quickly to projects, teams, product categories, and business realities. We understand and respond to urgent and time-sensitive projects.

Independence matters.

-—

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

https://lnkd.in/eVnqMKfh

Address

Carmel, IN
46032, 46033, 46082, 46280

Website

http://www.fearlessnaturals.us/

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