Compendium of botanicals
Botanicals and botanical preparations of plant origin are widely available on the European market as food, feed, and food supplements. The EFSA Compendium of Botanicals is an open-source database of plant species that are reported to contain naturally occurring substances of potential concern for human and animal health. The database is not intended to conclude on the safety or non-safety of the listed plant species, but to help with the safety assessment of botanicals and botanical preparations by facilitating hazard identification.
The data included in the Compendium are collated from published scientific articles, case and risk assessment reports, as described in an external scientific report.
List of botanical species
The botanical species list of the Compendium includes botanicals appearing on a negative list or subject to restricted use in at least one European Member State. If a botanical species is not listed in the Compendium, it is mainly because it was not on any of the lists considered - not because it does not contain any substance(s) of concern. The absence of a botanical species from the Compendium does not mean the species is devoid of compounds hazardous to human health. Similarly, if a specific part of a plant is not mentioned, this does not imply that substance(s) of concern are absent from this part. Botanicals are listed regardless of their status as novel foods. When a plant genus was present in the lists considered by EFSA’s scientists, but no species was mentioned, the abbreviation spp. was included in the Compendium.
Botanical species listed in the database, like all plants, contain an abundance of naturally occurring substances. Whilst most of these have a nutritional value, and/or positive effects on health and well-being, some may exert toxicity. For those substances of potential concern, in vitro and in vivo toxicity data from the scientific literature, if available, were assessed by EFSA’s scientists and included in the database. In situations where no experimental data for a toxicological endpoint were retrieved, the Compendium provides estimates drawn from in silico models based on quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) predictions to identify the substances that should be further investigated to rule out the potential adverse effects.
List of substances
The presence of a substance of concern in a botanical does not necessarily mean that the substance is also present in a botanical preparation and, if so, at a concentration that poses a risk to consumer health. This depends largely on the plant part used, the preparation method and the conditions of use. The inclusion of a botanical species or a substance in the Compendium does not necessarily reflect its safety or imply a risk to the consumer.
The Compendium does not list all bioactive substances present in a given botanical and their potential health effects, nor does it flag botanicals or botanical substances of possible concern for animal health when used as feed or feed additives. Where adverse effects on animal health were found in the literature, they are reported in the Compendium.
The Compendium does not address possible synergies or antagonisms between botanical species, preparations and substances, or possible interactions with other products that should be taken into account when assessing their safety, as described in the EFSA Scientific Committee guidance on the safety assessment of botanicals and botanical preparations intended for use as ingredients in food supplements (under revision).
In brief, the Plants and Substances Pages include the following information:
Plants Page:
- The Family. In many cases, botanical species from a given family contain similar groups of compounds. Therefore, knowing the family name may provide indications of the possible presence of similar compounds in other species not included in the Compendium. The “Plant List” database was used as the main source of information until its suspension in 2013. Subsequently, World Flora Online (WFO) as well as Plants Of the World Online (POWO) were used.
- The Botanical Species. The “Plant List” and the POWO taxonomy databases were taken as reference. If not found in these databases, or where the scientific name of the botanical was not officially accepted (“unresolved”), ARSGRIN was used. If still unsuccessful, the International Plant Name Index was consulted. Discrepancies found in plant name, synonym, author name, etc. were addressed and resolved by EFSA’s experts.
- The Plant Composition. It includes substances or chemical groups of concern, the plant part in which the compounds of concern were reported to be present, or for which adverse effect(s) were reported without any identification of substances of concern, the preparation, linked to the presence of a substance of possible concern or an adverse effect and information on the analytical method used and the concentration of a substance/group of substances measured.
- The Plant Adverse Effects table includes the relevant information retrieved from in vitro and in vivo scientific studies for a number of toxic effects other than genotoxicity (acute, systemic, reproductive, etc.), associated with a specific plant or its plant part.
- The Plant Genotoxicity table includes all the relevant information retrieved from in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity studies, associated with a specific plant or its plant part.
- The Reference is included for all data entries retrieved from the scientific literature searches.
Substances Page:
- The Substance Name: A list of substances of potential concern that were identified from the plant screening activity via the literature searches. By choosing a specific substance the relevant associated information is displayed in the three tables explained below.
- The Substances Adverse Effects table includes the key information retrieved from in vitro and in vivo scientific studies for toxic effects other than genotoxicity (acute, systemic, reproductive, etc.), associated with a substance of potential concern.
- The Substances Genotoxicity table includes all the relevant information retrieved from in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity studies, associated with a substance of potential concern.
- The Reference is included for all data entries retrieved from scientific literature searches.
The QSAR Predictions table includes the consensus outcome for a number of endpoints for the substances of potential concern (ie, acute toxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity and systemic toxicity - hepatotoxicity) generated by VEGA, Danish (Q)SAR database and T.E.S.T. models.
Legal disclaimer
The Compendium lists botanicals in an alphabetical order, without any judgment on whether they are suitable for food applications in Europe. The Compendium is part of preparatory work undertaken by EFSA to harmonise the methodology for assessing the safety of botanicals and botanical preparations used in food. The Compendium has no legal or regulatory force and may not be used as support or evidence in any disagreement or dispute pertaining to the legal classification of products or substances.
The information contained in the Compendium of Botanicals has been drawn from several sources and, even with as much care devoted to curation as possible, the information may not be accurate in some cases. EFSA is therefore neither responsible for any errors or inaccuracies that may have been contained in the Compendium, nor liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. EFSA do not warrant, and thereby disclaim any warranties, in regard to the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information obtained from this Compendium. The use of any information obtained from or through this source is at the users’ own risk. More information can be found in EFSA’s legal notice.
The latest version of the Compendium was released in April 2025. Users can send comments and additional contributions to the Compendium, to: mese@efsa.europa.eu