Some dietary supplements are being recalled after the federal government found that they contained a poisonous plant.
The supplements are nothing new but have drawn more attention in recent years because of the number of products on the market combined with the lack of general oversight required for consumer purchases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not have to approve such products, and manufacturers are not required to test for safety or prove some type of health benefit before they can be purchased. Still, some three-quarters of all Americans still buy and use such products.
An FDA warning issued on January 5 says that several dietary supplements sold on third-party platforms like Amazon labeled as tejocote (Crataegus mexicana) root are "adulterated" and being recalled after testing determined that the root was actually substituted with yellow oleander (Cascabela thevetia), a plant native to Mexico and Central America that is toxic to humans.
Authorities said that ingesting yellow oleander can lead to neurologic, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular health effects that can be severe or fatal, with symptoms potentially including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cardiac changes, dysrhythmia, etc.
The FDA has tested nine products, all of which it found contained yellow oleander, even though they were marketed as tejocote root dietary supplements. Additional testing is pending.
Five of the supplements were sold on Amazon, two on Etsy and two on different nutrition-based websites.
An Amazon spokesperson told Newsweek on Wednesday that the products in question have been removed from its website, adding that safety is a top priority for the company.
An Etsy spokesperson also told Newsweek that products containing yellow oleander were also pulled from its website, citing a violation of the company's hazardous plant materials policy.
Etsy sellers and retailers create, run and sell their own products, which are at the discretion of Etsy based on policy compliance. The company monitors such compliance based on varied practices, including site users flagging products online for potentially breaking policies.
Testing on such products followed a September 2023 report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing numerous instances of swapping tejocote root in place of yellow oleander.
Concerns exist that more similar dietary supplements could be posing a public health risk, notably other products marketed as containing tejocote root but having different names such as Crataegus mexicana, Raiz de Tejocote and Mexican Hawthorn.
A 2010 study published by the National Institutes of Health analyzed 21 individuals with a history of ingesting the yellow oleander seed, 61 percent of whom developed adverse conditions in the aftermath. Most of the patients were healthy prior to their ingestion, with the study's authors concluding that the cardiac arrhythmias caused by oleander poisoning was unlikely to result from preexisting conditions because of the patients' young ages and previously healthy states.
Anyone still using these products should stop immediately, per the FDA, and health providers should be contacted for precautionary measures. Anyone experiencing serious side effects should call 911.
Update 01/10/24, 2:06 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Amazon and Etsy.
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