Is Ashwagandha Banned? Denmark and the Global Picture

Ashwagandha is not banned across most of the world. Denmark restricted the root in food supplements in 2023 after a national risk assessment, and Dutch and French authorities have since urged caution. Yet in the United States, India and most other countries it remains a legal, long-used classical Rasayana.

No single European rule

There is no European Union-wide ban on ashwagandha. Food supplements in the EU sit under a shared framework, chiefly the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC), but the botanical ingredients permitted in them are largely decided by each member state. That is why the same root can be sold freely in one country and restricted in the next. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment flagged endocrine concerns as early as 2013, and in June 2024 the European Heads of Food Safety Agencies placed ashwagandha on a shortlist of botanicals proposed for a possible restriction procedure under Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006. The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency opened a call for evidence the same year. For now, when people search for an ashwagandha ban, they are usually reaching for a single national decision, most often Denmark’s, and reading it as though it were continental. It is not.

Denmark: from assessment to restriction

The story that started the wider conversation is Danish, and it runs back further than most headlines suggest. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) first assessed ashwagandha in 2008 and reached a cautious view even then. Years later the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen) asked for a fuller evaluation, and DTU’s National Food Institute delivered it in 2020, its literature review running to 2019.

That assessment is the document behind the restriction. It set out to establish whether a safe lower intake could be defined for the root and its extracts, and concluded that, on the available data, one could not. Along the way it gathered several strands of concern: studies suggesting possible effects on thyroid hormones; animal data pointing to effects on sex hormones and sperm; a longstanding traditional and textual record of use in pregnancy, including as an abortifacient, though the report itself carried no clinical proof of that effect; and further questions around the immune system and the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. The framing matters more than any single item: the objection was built on uncertainty at concentrated supplement doses, not a demonstration that ordinary use causes harm.

Acting on that assessment, Denmark moved in 2023 to disallow ashwagandha as a food-supplement ingredient, and it used the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) to notify other member states about products on the market. Industry scientists pushed back hard, arguing the assessment leaned on a narrow selection of studies, blurred the sharp difference between leaf and root extracts, and set aside human trials in which hormone measures returned to normal. Whichever way that debate settles, the Danish decision remains the reference point for the whole European discussion.

The Netherlands: a 2024 risk assessment

The Netherlands added the next major piece in 2024. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published a risk assessment of herbal preparations containing Withania somnifera, and it is worth being precise about who did what. RIVM is the scientific body that assessed the evidence; the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is the enforcement authority that monitors the market and acts on such findings. The two are often merged in reporting, but they are distinct.

RIVM concluded that preparations then on sale could, in sensitive people, contribute to liver injury, to thyroid overactivity of the kind associated with thyrotoxicosis, and to effects on the adrenal system. It advised against use by vulnerable groups, and against use in pregnancy in particular. As in Denmark, the assessment was about risk in specific conditions and at supplement strengths, rather than a blanket verdict on the plant.

France, Sweden and other European positions

France reached a similar destination by its own route. On 19 April 2024 the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) issued an opinion after receiving eight reports of suspected adverse effects. ANSES advised against ashwagandha in food supplements for people with thyroid, liver or heart conditions, and for those with hyperandrogenism or who are pregnant, and it recommended as a precaution that breastfeeding women and under-eighteens avoid it too. Notably, ANSES did not ban the herb: France had suspended its sale once before, between 2014 and 2015, then allowed it again.

Other national positions vary. Sweden signalled in 2022 that the Danish assessment could inform local decisions, leaving room for municipal discretion, and Poland has for some time permitted only root powder within set limits and not for children or pregnant and nursing women. The pattern across Europe is convergence on a message rather than a single rule: real concern for particular groups and at concentrated doses, against an evidence base that is still maturing.

The United States: legal, with rare warnings

In the United States ashwagandha is a legal dietary supplement. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration before sale, and ashwagandha is among the more widely used herbal products in the country. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) describes it as possibly safe in the short term, up to around three months, with not enough information to judge long-term safety; it advises avoiding the herb in pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and caution for people with thyroid or autoimmune conditions or facing surgery.

American authorities do track a safety signal. The NIH LiverTox database lists ashwagandha as a likely cause of rare but clinically apparent liver injury, typically appearing two to twelve weeks after starting a product, and cites a 2020 case series of five patients, three in Iceland and two in the United States. That legality is a deliberate category rather than inattention, because the FDA does act against botanicals when it judges the risk high enough. It banned dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids (ephedra) in 2004, a rule later upheld on appeal, and it has kept a standing import alert allowing detention of kratom. Ashwagandha simply has not met that bar.

India and the rest of Asia

In its home, ashwagandha is neither obscure nor restricted. It is one of the most widely used Rasayana herbs of classical Ayurveda, sold openly and promoted through official channels, including public health messaging on resilience and immunity. Its use is overseen by the Ministry of AYUSH alongside the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), whose 2016 food rules permit the root and root extracts.

There is one real distinction worth stating plainly, because it cuts against a lazy reading. India has drawn a line not at ashwagandha itself but at its leaf. An AYUSH advisory in 2021 discouraged leaf use, and in 2026 the ministry and FSSAI moved to prohibit ashwagandha leaves in all forms, while explicitly reaffirming the safety of the root. That order was quickly challenged, with the Karnataka and Kerala High Courts granting interim stays. The upshot is telling: even the herb’s homeland keeps the traditional root freely available, while treating the more concentrated leaf with new caution.

Why a regulatory-category decision is not the whole story

It is easy to read “restricted in Denmark” as “proven dangerous everywhere”. The two are not the same, and a few kinds of nuance sit behind the decisions.

The first is dose and form. Classical Ayurveda uses the dried root, often a modest measured amount stirred into warm milk over a course of weeks. Many modern supplements use standardised, concentrated extracts at higher effective doses, a different exposure from the traditional preparation. A regulator assessing a strong extract is not assessing a spoon of root powder in milk.

The second is the regulatory category itself. Being disallowed as a food-supplement ingredient in one country is a statement about that country’s supplement rules, not a global verdict on the plant, which remains a named Rasayana across the foundational texts and legal in most of the world.

The third is the state of the evidence. Much of the safety signal comes from case reports and studies of varied extracts, which raise fair questions without settling them. Cautious regulators reasonably act on uncertainty. It does not follow that every use is unsafe.

Who should be cautious

Whatever a given country’s rules, some groups have clear reason for care, and the assessments point to the same list. Pregnancy and breastfeeding come first, given the hormonal and traditional pregnancy-related concerns. People with thyroid conditions, or on thyroid medication, warrant caution because of possible effects on thyroid hormones. Those with liver problems, or anyone who notices digestive or liver symptoms while taking a supplement, should stop and seek advice. And because ashwagandha may interact with sedatives, immune-modulating drugs and other prescription medicines, anyone on regular medication should treat it as something to discuss with a doctor rather than add quietly.

What this means in practice

Pulling the threads together: ashwagandha is not the subject of a European Union-wide ban. It is restricted as a supplement ingredient in Denmark and treated with caution by Dutch and French authorities, on grounds of possible hormonal, liver and pregnancy-related effects at supplement doses, against an evidence base still developing. In the United States it is legal but carries clear cautions; in India the root is freely used while the leaf is now contested. Rules differ by country and change over time, so the status in any one market should be checked against current national guidance rather than assumed from a headline.

This article is for education and describes regulatory and classical context; it is not medical advice. Anyone who is pregnant, has a thyroid, liver or other health condition, or takes any medication should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner before using ashwagandha or any supplement.