Authentication · Disambiguation
Which species is it?
A trade name is not a species. “Cat's claw,” “cordyceps,” “sea moss,” “ginseng” — each of these names is used commercially for more than one plant or fungus, and the species in the bag determines the chemistry, the research record, and the safety picture. These pages state each collision plainly, link every claimant species to its full entry, and summarize the documented ways to tell them apart.
Educational reference only — species identity information, never product advice, never a place to decide what to take, and not a substitute for medical advice. Talk to your clinician or pharmacist about anything you take alongside medication.
- Cat's claw
“Cat's claw” (uña de gato) commercially denotes two Amazonian Uncaria species whose bark is documented to be mixed and interchanged in trade — and an unrelated Asian Uncaria (gou teng) shares the genus but not the trade name.
3 species claim this name
- Cordyceps
Most “cordyceps” supplements sold in the US and EU are cultivated Cordyceps militaris — a different species (and genus) from the wild Himalayan Ophiocordyceps sinensis the name historically refers to.
2 species claim this name
- Sea moss
The booming “sea moss” market overwhelmingly sells warm-water Kappaphycus alvarezii / Eucheuma species labeled as Irish moss — a different alga from cold-water Chondrus crispus, with a different carrageenan and iodine profile.
2 species claim this name
- Cinnamon
“Cinnamon” on a US retail label is usually not Ceylon cinnamon: roughly three-quarters of ground retail cinnamon is Indonesian korintje (Cinnamomum burmannii), a high-coumarin cassia-type species, and Chinese cassia is a third distinct article.
3 species claim this name
- Licorice
“Licorice” spans two traded Glycyrrhiza species — European G. glabra and Chinese G. uralensis (gan cao) — plus DGL, a processed form with the key constituent deliberately removed. Pharmacopoeias treat them as separate articles.
3 species claim this name
- Rhodiola
A substantial share of commercial “Rhodiola rosea” is actually Rhodiola crenulata (Tibetan rhodiola) — the principal documented adulterant in the rhodiola trade, with a different marker chemistry.
2 species claim this name
- Chamomile
“Chamomile” is two different plants in two different genera: German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) — the species behind most tea and clinical research — and Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), a distinct article.
2 species claim this name
- Skullcap
American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora, aerial parts) and Chinese skullcap (S. baicalensis, root — huang qin) are different species, different plant parts, and different traditions — and skullcap commerce carries a documented history of germander adulteration.
3 species claim this name
- Arnica
“Árnica” in Mexican and US-Hispanic commerce is usually Heterotheca inuloides — a different genus from the European Arnica montana of homeopathic and topical tradition.
2 species claim this name
- Costus
“Costus” names two unrelated traded plants: Saussurea costus (mu xiang, the CITES-listed Himalayan root of Chinese and Ayurvedic tradition) and the “insulin plant” (Chamaecostus cuspidatus, sold under the old name Costus igneus).
2 species claim this name
- Dragon's blood
“Dragon's blood” is a red resin name shared by unrelated genera on different continents — Croton lechleri (sangre de grado, Amazonia) and Daemonorops draco (the Southeast Asian rattan resin of incense commerce) — with documented substitution between resin sources.
2 species claim this name
- Sarsaparilla
“Sarsaparilla” is a multi-species muddle: New World Smilax species behind the root-beer/tonic tradition, and the distinct Chinese article tu fu ling (Smilax glabra) — plus historic conflation with unrelated plants (Indian “sarsaparilla” is Hemidesmus, not Smilax).
2 species claim this name
- Kratom & its relatives
The kratom-adjacent market sells several species under kratom-evoking names: kratom itself (Mitragyna speciosa), its congeners hirsuta and javanica — whose mitragynine content is unresolved-to-absent — and sakae naa (Combretum quadrangulare), an unrelated tree.
4 species claim this name
- Ginseng
Only Panax species are ginseng in the botanical sense — yet commerce attaches the word to unrelated plants on three continents: “Siberian ginseng” (eleuthero), “Brazilian ginseng” (suma), and “Indian ginseng” (ashwagandha).
7 species claim this name