It’s almost flu season, and one popular herbal supplement for immune support is ginseng. But what if your supplement contains undeclared ingredients? Ginseng products are vulnerable to fraud, with cheaper plant materials substituted for genuine ingredients, posing risks to consumer health and safety. However, effective methods for identifying adulteration and fraud in ginseng products have remained elusive. Now, a new study of 50 commercially available ginseng products, led by Diane Kim (M.S. ’24), has found surprising results. The team detected DNA from undeclared species in 48% of samples, including rice, wheat, avocado and pumpkin. One in four products contained only the expected ginseng species, 16% of the samples contained both the expected ginseng species and other undeclared species, and another 32% of the samples contained only undeclared species. This research could help regulatory bodies and manufacturers improve quality control in the dietary supplement industry. The new study, which was carried out in the lab of Associate Director of Food Science Rosalee Hellberg, is featured in Food Safety Magazine. 

Brian Kirsch ’23 has published a new paper entitled “Satellite observations indicate that chia uses less water than other crops in warm climates.” Published in the journal Communications Biology, the study uses satellite remote sensing to compare the water-use efficiency of the crop chia to that of alfafa, corn, and soybean. The study finds that “substituting 10% of Southwest United States alfalfa cultivation with chia would save 184 million liters of water per growing season, equivalent to the annual water consumption of 1,300 households.” The study includes Chapman University students Radhika Puri ’25 and Mohammad Hassani, as well as professors Thomas Piechota, Joshua Fisher and Hagop Atamian. 

Walter Piper, professor of biological sciences, has been studying the Common Loon for more than 30 years. An iconic species of the northern lakes, key populations are in trouble, Piper’s research reveals. In 2019, Piper observed warning signs related to the survival and breeding success of loons in Wisconsin. Now, his preliminary analysis reveals that loons from this population, which overwinter in Florida, have been returning to Wisconsin at lower and lower rates in the past twenty years. Piper maintains a blog on his project website that provides a fascinating, real-time look at how he thinks about documenting the natural history of these beautiful birds. 

Students seem to dread the idea of attending their professors’ office hours. New research led by Desiree Forsythe, a former Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow now on the faculty at Santa Clara University, examines this problem from the instructor’s perspective. The paper, entitled “Exploring Variations in STEM Instructors’ Approaches to Office Hours,” is published in the journal CBE: Life Sciences Education and includes co-authors Operations Administrator Rebecca Green and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Jeremy Hsu. The team concludes that there is an “urgent need to provide support and training for instructors on how to best promote and manage office hours” and that instructors indicated that they would be open to such training.