Group urges FDA to pull products containing ginkgo biloba.

The Hill (6/4, Hattem, 21K) “RegWatch” blog reports that the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants the Food and Drug Administration to “pull products that contain the herbal extract Ginkgo biloba from the marketplace.” The consumer advocacy group cited a study (pdf) released in March by the NIH’s National Toxicology Program that concluded the extract caused cancer in rodents. On Monday, CSPI Director Michael Jacobson and Senior Nutritionist David Schardt sent a letter (pdf) to FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Director Michael Landa, urging the “agency to make companies recall their products containing the extract and ‘take legal action’ against diet supplement firms that resist.” The Hill notes that in March, the “agency told the Stewart Brothers, Inc., juice company that Ginkgo was ‘an unsafe food additive.’”

        The New York Daily News (6/4, Knowles, 543K) also covered the story.