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Natural Products Association

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The Natural Products Association or NPA (formerly the NNFA , or the National Nutritional Foods Association ) is the largest and oldest nonprofit organization representing the interests of manufacturers and retailers of the natural products industry, which includes organic and health foods, dietary supplements , natural ingredient cosmetics , and other similar products. The organization includes more than 1,900 members accounting for more than 10,000 retailers , manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of natural products.

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35-696: The Natural Products Association was founded in 1936 as the American Health Foods Association (AHFA) to inform consumers about the benefits of the natural nutrition industry. In 1937, the association changed its name to the Natural Health Foods Association (NHFA), representing retailers, manufacturers and distributors. In 1943, NHFA was renamed to the National Dietary Foods Association (NDFA). In 1970, NDFA officially became

70-740: A global public health and safety organization, and NATURE, the International Natural and Organic Cosmetics Association, announced a partnership to develop another standard for natural personal care products. "There is currently neither a regulatory nor a globally recognized definition for the term 'natural.' The new NSF/NATURE standard will define the use of the term 'natural', helping to promote authentic and quality natural personal care products," said NSF International. The NPA responded, stating, "A second seal with different standards does not serve natural product customers, retailers, or manufacturers." Plant See text Plants are

105-481: A product contains at least 95% natural ingredients, excluding water. The Natural Products Association (NPA) mandates that certified products must utilize natural ingredients, eschew components with known health risks, refrain from animal testing, and incorporate biodegradable or recycled material into the packaging. Furthermore, all ingredients must be listed on the package label, with a requirement for 100% natural fragrances and colorants. In 2011, NSF International ,

140-551: A protective response. The first such plant receptors were identified in rice and in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plants have some of the largest genomes of all organisms. The largest plant genome (in terms of gene number) is that of wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), predicted to encode ≈94,000 genes and thus almost 5 times as many as the human genome . The first plant genome sequenced was that of Arabidopsis thaliana which encodes about 25,500 genes. In terms of sheer DNA sequence,

175-420: A range of physical and biotic stresses which cause DNA damage , but they can tolerate and repair much of this damage. Plants reproduce to generate offspring, whether sexually , involving gametes , or asexually , involving ordinary growth. Many plants use both mechanisms. When reproducing sexually, plants have complex lifecycles involving alternation of generations . One generation, the sporophyte , which

210-698: A variety of educational programs and resources for both members and non-members. These include: NPA members typically receive discounts off the price of education sessions. Members of the Natural Products Association also may join one of five regional offices. Each region is governed by its own board of directors and the president of each region also sits on the national NPA Board of Directors. Regional offices include: NPA East ; NPA Midwest ; NPA Northwest ; SENPA Southeast Natural Products Association ; and NPA Southwest . Natural products certification Natural product certification

245-404: Is diploid (with 2 sets of chromosomes ), gives rise to the next generation, the gametophyte , which is haploid (with one set of chromosomes). Some plants also reproduce asexually via spores . In some non-flowering plants such as mosses, the sexual gametophyte forms most of the visible plant. In seed plants (gymnosperms and flowering plants), the sporophyte forms most of the visible plant, and

280-547: Is a similar process. Structures such as runners enable plants to grow to cover an area, forming a clone . Many plants grow food storage structures such as tubers or bulbs which may each develop into a new plant. Some non-flowering plants, such as many liverworts, mosses and some clubmosses, along with a few flowering plants, grow small clumps of cells called gemmae which can detach and grow. Plants use pattern-recognition receptors to recognize pathogens such as bacteria that cause plant diseases. This recognition triggers

315-492: Is an official term that refers to a specific process where products derived from natural sources, such as plants , minerals , or animals , are assessed and verified to meet certain standards or criteria. This certification can cover a wide range of product categories, including food, cosmetics , dietary supplements , and personal care products . The natural seal is a certification in the United States indicating that

350-496: Is known as botany , a branch of biology . All living things were traditionally placed into one of two groups, plants and animals . This classification dates from Aristotle (384–322 BC), who distinguished different levels of beings in his biology , based on whether living things had a "sensitive soul" or like plants only a "vegetative soul". Theophrastus , Aristotle's student, continued his work in plant taxonomy and classification. Much later, Linnaeus (1707–1778) created

385-706: The Cretaceous so rapid that Darwin called it an " abominable mystery ". Conifers diversified from the Late Triassic onwards, and became a dominant part of floras in the Jurassic . In 2019, a phylogeny based on genomes and transcriptomes from 1,153 plant species was proposed. The placing of algal groups is supported by phylogenies based on genomes from the Mesostigmatophyceae and Chlorokybophyceae that have since been sequenced. Both

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420-457: The carpels or ovaries , which develop into fruits that contain seeds . Fruits may be dispersed whole, or they may split open and the seeds dispersed individually. Plants reproduce asexually by growing any of a wide variety of structures capable of growing into new plants. At the simplest, plants such as mosses or liverworts may be broken into pieces, each of which may regrow into whole plants. The propagation of flowering plants by cuttings

455-623: The eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae ; they are predominantly photosynthetic . This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight , using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water, using the green pigment chlorophyll . Exceptions are parasitic plants that have lost the genes for chlorophyll and photosynthesis, and obtain their energy from other plants or fungi. Most plants are multicellular , except for some green algae. Historically, as in Aristotle's biology ,

490-1003: The "chlorophyte algae" and the "streptophyte algae" are treated as paraphyletic (vertical bars beside phylogenetic tree diagram) in this analysis, as the land plants arose from within those groups. The classification of Bryophyta is supported both by Puttick et al. 2018, and by phylogenies involving the hornwort genomes that have also since been sequenced. Rhodophyta [REDACTED] Glaucophyta [REDACTED] Chlorophyta [REDACTED] Prasinococcales   Mesostigmatophyceae Chlorokybophyceae Spirotaenia [REDACTED] Klebsormidiales [REDACTED] Chara [REDACTED] Coleochaetales [REDACTED] Hornworts [REDACTED] Liverworts [REDACTED] Mosses [REDACTED] Lycophytes [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Gymnosperms [REDACTED] Angiosperms [REDACTED] Plant cells have distinctive features that other eukaryotic cells (such as those of animals) lack. These include

525-643: The National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA). The organization renamed itself the Natural Products Association or NPA in June 2006. It has over 650 members today. Its members include suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers representing 10,000 storefronts. The science and regulatory affairs department oversees the association's third-party certification programs. The NPA Natural Seal is described as

560-864: The Viridiplantae, along with the red algae and the glaucophytes , in the clade Archaeplastida . There are about 380,000 known species of plants, of which the majority, some 260,000, produce seeds . They range in size from single cells to the tallest trees . Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen; the sugars they create supply the energy for most of Earth's ecosystems and other organisms , including animals, either eat plants directly or rely on organisms which do so. Grain , fruit , and vegetables are basic human foods and have been domesticated for millennia. People use plants for many purposes , such as building materials , ornaments, writing materials , and, in great variety, for medicines . The scientific study of plants

595-801: The amount of cytoplasm stays the same. Most plants are multicellular . Plant cells differentiate into multiple cell types, forming tissues such as the vascular tissue with specialized xylem and phloem of leaf veins and stems , and organs with different physiological functions such as roots to absorb water and minerals, stems for support and to transport water and synthesized molecules, leaves for photosynthesis, and flowers for reproduction. Plants photosynthesize , manufacturing food molecules ( sugars ) using energy obtained from light . Plant cells contain chlorophylls inside their chloroplasts, which are green pigments that are used to capture light energy. The end-to-end chemical equation for photosynthesis is: This causes plants to release oxygen into

630-431: The atmosphere. Green plants provide a substantial proportion of the world's molecular oxygen, alongside the contributions from photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria. Plants that have secondarily adopted a parasitic lifestyle may lose the genes involved in photosynthesis and the production of chlorophyll. Growth is determined by the interaction of a plant's genome with its physical and biotic environment. Factors of

665-467: The basis of the modern system of scientific classification , but retained the animal and plant kingdoms , naming the plant kingdom the Vegetabilia. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a specific group of organisms or taxa , it usually refers to one of four concepts. From least to most inclusive, these four groupings are: There are about 382,000 accepted species of plants, of which

700-488: The development of forests in swampy environments dominated by clubmosses and horsetails, including some as large as trees, and the appearance of early gymnosperms , the first seed plants . The Permo-Triassic extinction event radically changed the structures of communities. This may have set the scene for the evolution of flowering plants in the Triassic (~ 200  million years ago ), with an adaptive radiation in

735-478: The first and only natural products certification in the United States. Currently only home care and personal care products and ingredients can be certified. The association requires that certified products must be at least 95 percent natural ingredients or ingredients from natural sources, excluding water. NPA-certified products must use natural ingredients, avoid ingredients with health risks, don't use animal testing, and include biodegradable or recycled material in

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770-409: The gametophyte is very small. Flowering plants reproduce sexually using flowers, which contain male and female parts: these may be within the same ( hermaphrodite ) flower, on different flowers on the same plant , or on different plants . The stamens create pollen , which produces male gametes that enter the ovule to fertilize the egg cell of the female gametophyte. Fertilization takes place within

805-583: The great majority, some 283,000, produce seeds . The table below shows some species count estimates of different green plant (Viridiplantae) divisions . About 85–90% of all plants are flowering plants. Several projects are currently attempting to collect records on all plant species in online databases, e.g. the World Flora Online . Plants range in scale from single-celled organisms such as desmids (from 10  micrometres   (μm) across) and picozoa (less than 3 μm across), to

840-551: The industry and the impact of federal legislation and regulations. In addition, NPA provides comments to federal agencies on how regulatory enforcement activities may affect manufacturers, retailers and consumers of natural products and dietary supplements. NPA's regional offices are primarily responsible for monitoring state legislative activity, though the national office leads outreach in California and Hawaii. Each year, NPA hosts Natural Products Day for NPA members and others in

875-559: The industry forward. The Dietary Supplement Caucus (DSC) was launched in 2006 to serve as a bipartisan, bicameral group to facilitate discussions among congressional lawmakers about issues related to dietary supplements. In 2008, the DSC, in cooperation with the Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition, held its first briefing. The briefings continue to be held on Capitol Hill. The Natural Products Association offers

910-675: The industry to visit Congressional offices and talk to senators, representatives and their staffs about legislative and regulatory issues. NPA also presents Congressional Champion Awards to selected legislators. In addition, the association hosts a California Natural Products Day in Sacramento. Offering two days of industry-driven, educational sessions, workshop programming, case studies, interactive discussions, networking and benchmarking. The Big Natural brings together industry leaders, innovators and government officials who share insights that will educate, empower and spark innovative ideas to drive

945-529: The land 1,200  million years ago , but it was not until the Ordovician , around 450  million years ago , that the first land plants appeared, with a level of organisation like that of bryophytes. However, fossils of organisms with a flattened thallus in Precambrian rocks suggest that multicellular freshwater eukaryotes existed over 1000 mya. Primitive land plants began to diversify in

980-412: The large water-filled central vacuole , chloroplasts , and the strong flexible cell wall , which is outside the cell membrane . Chloroplasts are derived from what was once a symbiosis of a non-photosynthetic cell and photosynthetic cyanobacteria . The cell wall, made mostly of cellulose , allows plant cells to swell up with water without bursting. The vacuole allows the cell to change in size while

1015-515: The largest trees ( megaflora ) such as the conifer Sequoia sempervirens (up to 120 metres (380 ft) tall) and the angiosperm Eucalyptus regnans (up to 100 m (325 ft) tall). The naming of plants is governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants . The ancestors of land plants evolved in water. An algal scum formed on

1050-665: The late Silurian , around 420  million years ago . Bryophytes, club mosses, and ferns then appear in the fossil record. Early plant anatomy is preserved in cellular detail in an early Devonian fossil assemblage from the Rhynie chert . These early plants were preserved by being petrified in chert formed in silica-rich volcanic hot springs. By the end of the Devonian, most of the basic features of plants today were present, including roots, leaves and secondary wood in trees such as Archaeopteris . The Carboniferous period saw

1085-530: The manufacturing of dietary supplements and ingredients in 1999. NPA GMP Certification is awarded to companies that comply with the NPA GMP standard as verified through comprehensive third-party inspections of facilities and GMP-related documentation . More than 70 companies are known to have achieved certification. NPA also offers a series of GMP training seminars across the United States each year. The Natural Products Association educates members of Congress about

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1120-465: The packaging. Products also must list all ingredients on the package label, and NPA requires 100 percent natural fragrances and colorants. Certified products are said to appear in more than 85,000 stores nationwide. NPA has certified more than 1,200 products and ingredients since 2008, including well-known brands like Burt's Bees and J.R. Watkins. The Natural Products Association launched the first third-party Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) program for

1155-501: The physical or abiotic environment include temperature , water , light, carbon dioxide , and nutrients in the soil. Biotic factors that affect plant growth include crowding, grazing, beneficial symbiotic bacteria and fungi, and attacks by insects or plant diseases . Frost and dehydration can damage or kill plants. Some plants have antifreeze proteins , heat-shock proteins and sugars in their cytoplasm that enable them to tolerate these stresses . Plants are continuously exposed to

1190-538: The plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals , and included algae and fungi . Definitions have narrowed since then; current definitions exclude the fungi and some of the algae. By the definition used in this article, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (green plants), which consists of the green algae and the embryophytes or land plants ( hornworts , liverworts , mosses , lycophytes , ferns , conifers and other gymnosperms , and flowering plants ). A definition based on genomes includes

1225-469: The smallest published genome is that of the carnivorous bladderwort ( Utricularia gibba) at 82 Mb (although it still encodes 28,500 genes) while the largest, from the Norway spruce ( Picea abies ), extends over 19.6 Gb (encoding about 28,300 genes). Plants are distributed almost worldwide. While they inhabit several biomes which can be divided into a multitude of ecoregions , only the hardy plants of

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