Ephedra: Legal or Not?

If ephedra is banned - why are there ephedra-based diet pills appearing on the market? The answer lies in the amount of concentrated ephedra alkaloid that these new products contain.

So what exactly is the status of this supposedly banned herbal supplement?

The Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of the dietary supplement (sometimes called Ma Huang) effective from 12th April 2004.

No less than a year later US District Judge Tena Campbell struck down the ban. This was in response to a lawsuit from supplement company Nutraceutical International Corp. Nutraceutical's supplements had no less than 10 milligrams of ephedra per dosage.

The ruling's final page prohibits the FDA from enforcing the ban on Nutraceutical's supplements containing 10 milligrams or less of ephedra.

Finally, a year on, some manufacturers are prepared to test this ruling, and ephedra-based supplements are beginning to appear on the market again. However these new pills have 10mg or less of the ephedra alkaloid.

Ephedra will always remain a controversial supplement. Along with many critics, there are also many who support the use of ephedra as an effective fat burner. The supporters claim an overall ban is unfair and that pharmaceutical drugs consistently bring far more deaths and adverse side effects than ephedra ever did. As to it's effectiveness, a report available on the FDA site concludes that:

The short-term use of ephedrine, ephedrine plus caffeine, or the assessed dietary supplements containing ephedra and herbs with caffeine is associated with a statistically significant increase in short-term weight loss (compared to placebo).

I suspect this debate will carry on for many years to come.