The Ashwagandha-AYUSH Truth Will Set Us Free

The truth will set us free.

Many are interpreting the AYUSH/FSSAI action differently than it actually is.

The Ashwagandha Standards Alliance, a robust, growing group of responsible firms, is addressing these and other related issues one by one.

Undeclared aerial-part substitution should be taken seriously. Yet ashwagandha ingredients from reputable suppliers already properly label plant part as part of GMP — so this looks like a bit of a red herring for other issues.

The action is also being interpreted as a regulatory restriction applying to countries outside India, when it is only a continuation of a misguided 2021 advisory and 2024 scientific reviews.

As a regulatory decision within India’s own traditional medicine and food framework, the ruling should not be misread anywhere else as a global scientific verdict that ashwagandha leaf is unsafe.

Overall, the action is misguided in a few ways.

First, the action conflates legitimate use of root and leaf with adulteration. “Adulteration” is a legal and regulatory definition and should not be thrown around casually.

The truth is, more than 30 clinical and safety trials have been conducted on properly labeled root+leaf products, showing an excellent record of safety and efficacy.

Second, the action neglects the body of evidence, recently compiled and published in Phytotherapy Research by Thomas Brendler and others, which shows an excellent record of safety for both root and leaf ashwagandha products.

Third, the action is based on a foundation of flawed, incomplete AYUSH-generated reports which omit a large amount of verified evidence, including the incorrect attribution of root-and-leaf evidence as root-only.

Fourth, the common argument that leaf was not used traditionally is incorrect. Tallon, Koturbash, and Blum’s 2025 systematic review in Phytotherapy Research catalogued leaf and aerial-part use across multiple traditional systems, including uses for fever, inflammation, wound poultices, and febrifuge applications in regional materia medica across India, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Jordan, the Sahel, South Asia, and other areas.

That does not mean all traditional leaf use automatically supports modern dietary supplement use — but that’s what we have scientific support for.

(When we have the science, how much of a difference does an already-incomplete historical record make?) Yet we are aware that any “no historical precedent” claim for leaf is incorrect and misguided.