Dietary Supplements Containing Ephedra Alkaloids

Abstract

As an anatomical pathologist and paid consultant to the Ephedra Education Council, I reviewed 22 reports of adverse events received by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in which death had occurred and assessed the likelihood that death was related to the use of ephedrine-type alkaloids. My review, reported August 8, 2000, at the Department of Health and Human Services's Public Meeting on the Safety of Dietary Supplements Containing Ephedrine Alkaloids, in Washington, D.C., showed no consistent clinical or pathological features of the reported adverse events and showed that ephedrine-type alkaloids were not likely to have been causative or contributing factors in the deaths.¹