Beware! Poison in Chinese herbal formula

Herbal food supplements do have risk. Nevertheless, they are being sold like hot cakes these days just because they are made of natural ingredients. German-based poison emergency centers from the year 2005 are reported to have almost 17 patients found to have been suffering from health problems after taking Chinese slimming capsules.

According to reports, a slimming pill available for sale on the Internet is being advertised to have herbal substances and a food supplement. However, examination of the formulation reveals that the pill carries active substance sibutramine, which looks like amphetamine and reduces the reuptake of noradrenaline and serotonin in the brain. The sibutramine dose in each capsule relate to twice the daily maximum dose of the prescription drug in Germany.

Two men and 15 women were reported to have symptoms of poisoning, such as tachycardia, headache, nausea, dyspnea, agitation, and insomnia. Most of note, severe symptoms of poisoning were to have arisen along with other drugs.

The pharmacologist Dieter Müller believes that the intake of food supplements carrying sibutramine is more than what was recorded in the exammination. Besides, the causal link is not identified in a number of cases as the sufferers generally don’t approach poison information center for consultancy.

Therefore, the authors insist that the manufacturers are under obligation to announce doses and Ingredients of their formulations.