Investigation on Counterfeit Glucosamine and Chondroitin Products in Iranian Pharmaceutical Markets

The purpose of this report is to present the results of analysis of actual glucosamineand/or chondroitin contents of several such products in the market place and to determineif they significantly deviate from their label claim. a total of fourteen products containingglucosamine sulfate and nine products containing chondroitin sulfate were evaluated. theamounts of glucosamine and chondroitin were found to be significantly different fromthe label claim in one product, ranging from as low as 59.00% to over 112.14% of thelable claim for glucosamine and 77.69% to over 94.86 % for chondroitin. retail price ofthe product did not appear to be related to the quantity of active ingredients. the overallresults of this study show that famous brands are better candidates for counterfeiting thanexpensive ones.