Suchergebnisse

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Dietary supplements containing ephedra have been associated with serious health-related adverse events, including heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and deaths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). Reports of adverse events have been received by FDA and others, including Metabolife International, the manufacturer of a dietary supplement containing ephedra, Metabolife 356. Because of concerns surrounding the safety of dietary supplements containing ephedra, GAO was asked to discuss and update some of the findings from its prior work on ephedra, including its examination of Metabolife International's records of health-related calls from consumers of Metabolife 356. Specifically, GAO examined (1) FDA's analysis of the adverse event reports it received for dietary supplements containing ephedra, (2) how the adverse events reported in the health-related call records collected by Metabolife International illustrate the health risks of dietary supplements containing ephedra, and (3) FDA's actions in the oversight of dietary supplements containing ephedra."

This study was conducted to use the local Ephedra alata plant as a model for extracting and detecting alkaloids in the stem of plant (alkaloids-rich extract and crude extract). Different extraction procedures were adopted for qualitative as well as the quantitative examination of the alkaloid extracts, as well as plant crude extract, the best methods for the extraction of the plant materials were applied. Simple, fast and accurate methods like TLC (thin layer chromatography) and HPLC (High-performance liquid chromatography), were used for the identification of the alkaloids (ephedrine) in different extracts of stems E. alata stems. Ephedrine alkaloid was detected in each alkaloids-rich and crude extracts of E. alata stems with 8 and 5 ppm concentrations respectively.
The assessment of plant stems extract was carried out as these extracts have effects on human breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231) and normal human lymphocytes (HLs). The study showed that there was no risk in using Ephedra in medicines as it has low cytotoxicity on HLs, while on MDA-MB-231 cell lines the percentage of cell death was 50.11% at a concentration 75mg/ml for crude extract after the 72-hours incubation period and the concentration of 15 mg/ml during the 24-hours incubation period had 50.63% inhibition rate.
The study showed that E. alata, an important medicinal plant, has alkaloids-rich extracts that have low cytotoxic effects on cultured HLs, particularly when used at a concentration of 5 mg/ml considering its use at low concentrations, the local Ephedra alata plant has promising effects on cancerous lines.

"Serial no. 106-60." ; Shipping list no.: 2000-0137-P. ; Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Shipping list no.: 2003-0180-P. ; Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche. ; "Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs." ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, "America's Doctor," recently testified before Congress on why he was promoting supplements containing Garcinia cambogia, raspberry ketones, green coffee extract and other unproven ingredients as weight loss miracles. He acknowledged that "sometimes they don't have the scientific muster to pass as fact." In fact, there is no legal over-the-counter botanical supplement that has demonstrated clinical efficacy as a diet pill. [The only herbal treatment that can lead to modest weight loss is ephedra combined with caffeine, but this cocktail can also cause strokes, heart attacks and sudden death; hence, ephedra was banned in 2004.]