Smiling Cloud Posted October 19, 2009 A friend who is starting a supplement comapny recently imported some mucuna extract. It was standardised to 98% l-dopa. She would have liked to get an extract that contained a few more of the mucuna alkaloids but almost all extracts are standardised to contain l-dopa, without the other alkaloids. Anyway, her extract got handed over to customs on the 16th of this month and she is freaking out. I told her it should be fine as customs is obviously going to check out 2 kilos of white powder coming from asia but she reckons that because the product is so purified that it may be classed as l-dopa, rather than a mucuna extract. She decided to lookninto why the extract may have been held up after it had been taken by customs. I had a look around for information and it seems that mucuna extract is legal to import however l-dopa is not as it is a schedule 4 medicine. Does anyone know how this stuff would be classed? Would it be a mucuna extract or l-dopa? I've imported 30g of mucuna extract standardised to 99.9% l-dopa and it was opened by customs and then sent on so i'm assuming that it is sweet. However i would really like to know so that i can let my friend know what she should do. She has imported a few other herbs before this from the same place so if she does get into trouble it is obvious that it was an honest mistake, if that counts for anything, which it probably doesn't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alice Posted October 19, 2009 At that purity (98%) it would most likely be classed as l-dopa, not an extract. Though many pharmaceutical compounds are technically "extracts" even though they may be very high purity, depends on customs definition. Its a rather large amount too. Hopefully there were other herbal extracts in the package that give legitimacy to her claim, and not just 2 kg of a schedule 4 substance? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Smiling Cloud Posted October 19, 2009 Just got an email from her and it has cleared customs. Must've taken a little while for the courier company to update their website or something. It sat in customs for afew hours apparently. The more i think about it the more it seems that this shouldn't have ended well. If our law says that if something contains a substance then it is that substance (like 1kg coca leaf is treated as 1kg cocaine) then surely this would not be any different? Or maybe thats only for illegal drugs? Actually that might only be qld too? Anyway i don't think she'll be doing it again, which is a pity, as it is a very effective medicine. All in all its a good end to an interesting situation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
