The occurrence of acetaminophen/codeine as an adulterant in herbal analgesic supplements in Hamadan, Iran: A pilot study.

Analgesics, such as acetaminophen (APAP) and codeine (COD), are used to adulterate medicinal herbs and/or herbal supplements. This study evaluated the APAP and COD levels in 60 herbal supplement and/or herb-based medicine samples collected from apothecaries in Hamadan, Iran. The samples were analysed using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. The results showed that 15% of the samples contained 38900-165200 ng/g and 31.1-603.3 ng/g of APAP and COD, respectively. Due to the side-effects of analgesic drugs in human, control of these drugs is recommended in herbal supplements.