CITES-Listed Botanicals: Securing Botanical Ingredients with Plant Cell Culture

Demand for botanical ingredients in herbal supplements is accelerating. According to the American Botanical Council (ABC) Market Report, U.S. herbal supplement sales are growing at 5.4% from 2023 to 2024. Consumers are increasingly turning to botanicals in supplements, as well as food and beverages, as natural solutions to support healthy aging, especially in the areas of cognitive function, cardiovascular wellness, stress, and immune health. Yet as demand increases, supply chain issues continue to become more apparent.

CITES and Supply Chain Risk

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulates cross-border trade for listed plants and animals to protect them from becoming endangered or extinct. CITES listings impose harvest restrictions, supply chain delays, and add compliance requirements. Additionally, companies must secure permits and certifications to ensure they source and trade botanicals legally. These protections safeguard biodiversity, but they also escalate challenges with quality, price, and planning.

Adulteration, Verification, and Climate Challenges

Supply risk doesn’t end with regulations alone. As demand outpaces legal supply, botanicals are increasingly vulnerable to adulteration and contamination. Programs such as the American Botanical Council’s Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) attempt to track these problems across multiple species. The BAPP reports highlight the need for more rigorous verification and sourcing practices. At the same time, climate variability shifts yields and alters phytochemical profiles, which makes production less consistent.

Rhodiola: A Case Study in Supply Chain Risk

For centuries, people have prized Rhodiola rosea for its adaptogenic bioactive ingredients, including rosavins and salidroside. Traditionally, harvesters collect rhodiola in harsh, high-altitude Arctic and subarctic regions on rocky cliffs and mountain slopes. Furthermore, rhodiola takes four to five years to mature. For these reasons, large-scale cultivation and adapting to sudden spikes in demand are even more challenging.

Since 2022, CITES has required permits for rhodiola trade, slowing availability and increasing cost as demand increases by 30% according to ABC’s recent reporting. At the same time, the rhodiola supply chain faces persistent quality challenges. Studies show that up to 20% of products claiming to be R. rosea lack marker compounds like rosavin. Additionally, most products contain lower levels than certified reference samples, and suppliers often adulterate them with other species. In some cases, genetic testing revealed substitutions with unrelated species. Shifting growing conditions and trade practices further increase inconsistencies in phytochemical content.

Bottom line: The rhodiola supply chain is precarious, and an alternate supply is needed to alleviate these ongoing issues.

Other CITES Listed Botanicals of Interest

The challenges of adulteration, contamination, and inconsistent bioactive content are not unique to rhodiola. Many wildcrafters and harvesters collect botanicals under pressure, exposing them to the same risks in product safety and reliability. These issues become even more complex when plants are listed under CITES Appendix II, where trade is restricted to prevent overexploitation.

Notable examples of species on the CITES list include:

• American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) – Appendix II since 1975; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service provides exporter and trade guidance.
• Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) – Appendix II since 1997; regulators control the international trade of roots and related materials.
• African cherry (Prunus africana) – Appendix II since 1995; bark harvested for prostate health formulations; listings control harvest and export.
• Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi, syn. grandiflora) – Appendix II since 1997; traditional medicine uses its roots and rhizomes, and regulators oversee international trade.

These listings illustrate a broader supply chain challenge: how to meet growing consumer demand for botanical ingredients while ensuring sustainability, authenticity, and compliance.

Three Routes for Sourcing Botanical Ingredients

1) Agriculture and Wildcrafting: Essential but Limited

Agricultural cultivation of botanicals is scalable and supports rural livelihoods, making it the most widely used method of sourcing today. However, many CITES-listed plants have slow growth cycles, require specialized climates, and have seasonal variability that leads to inconsistent yields. Climate change compounds these issues, as extreme weather events and shifting conditions alter both crop productivity and phytochemical profiles.

Even cultivated botanicals carry risks. One large-scale study found that over 30% of cultivated herbal medicine samples exceeded heavy metal limits for arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, based on standards in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Researchers detected pesticide residues in 74% of herbal samples, often several times higher than the European Union maximum residue limits (MRLs). These issues highlight the risks associated with farming practices.

Meanwhile, much of the world’s supply still depends on wildcrafting, or collecting plants from natural habitats. While this practice supports rural incomes, it is increasingly unsustainable. Overharvesting drives habitat loss, while erosion, land conversion, and unregulated collection put additional stress on populations. Wildcrafting relies on skilled local labor, but younger generations increasingly avoid this labor-intensive work to pursue higher-paying jobs instead.

Bottom line: Agriculture and wildcrafting remain essential, but for CITES-listed species, they rarely deliver fast, uniform, or fully compliant supply. Furthermore, risks of adulteration, contamination, or supply disruption remain high.

2) Precision Fermentation: Promise and Gaps

Precision fermentation is a powerful tool to produce specific plant-derived compounds. In this process, microbes are genetically engineered to manufacture a single target molecule, such as salidroside in rhodiola. While effective at producing one compound at high purity, this method does not replicate the full phytocomplex of bioactives present in the original plant. Therefore, precision fermentation is a strong route to choose for single-molecule production, but has limitations in reproducing complex botanical ingredients.

For botanicals with multiple bioactive molecules, they often work synergistically and are the standard for claims support. Therefore, precision fermentation often falls short of delivering equivalent benefits.

Bottom line: Fermentation is powerful for a single-compound supply. But it cannot match the complexity of full-spectrum botanicals. Furthermore, the use of genetically modified organisms is required for precision fermentation and may not be the best fit for the brand.

3) Plant Cell Culture: A Scalable and Sustainable Alternative

Plant cell culture provides a tenable solution, one that is sustainable, scalable, reliable, and contaminant-free. Unlike agriculture, plant cell cultivation is not tied to geography, climate, or years-long growth cycles, nor does it expose consumers to pesticide use or heavy metals. And unlike precision fermentation, it produces the full spectrum of bioactive ingredients as found in nature, including secondary metabolites that contribute to efficacy.

With plant cell culture, authenticated plant cells are cultivated under controlled conditions, ensuring:

• Delivers consistent levels of active compounds from authenticated plants
• Free from pesticides, heavy metals, and other contaminants
• Delivers rapid and “on-demand” production cycles in weeks instead of years
• Protects biodiversity by reducing pressure on wild populations
• Avoids the use of genetically modified organisms

For CITES-listed botanicals like Rhodiola rosea, plant cell culture offers a path to a reliable, compliant, and full-spectrum supply that mirrors the chemistry of the plant itself.

Bottom line: Plant cell culture delivers the best of both worlds, a consistent and sustainable supply from authenticated plants, without overharvesting or contamination.

Choosing the Right Supply Strategy for CITES Listed Botanical Ingredients

• If agriculture is the baseline of choice, invest in rigorous identity testing and contaminant prevention controls. Plan for variable yields and composition as climate change, extreme weather events, and regulations evolve.
• If a product concept depends on a single hero molecule (e.g., a purified flavor or aroma), precision fermentation can be a fast, scalable fit. However, it will not reproduce a botanical phytocomplex that aligns with clinical research on traditional botanicals.
• If you need a non-GMO full-spectrum botanical supply that is reliable and contaminant-free, plant cell culture is the most direct technology fit. The phytocomplex of bioactive ingredients replicates the natural spectrum, and clinical research supports their use for health and wellness.