LAUSR

Obesity is a chronic disease associated with serious health problems such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. Due to the growing trend of returning to nature and the fear of adverse reactions from conventional medicines, people are increasingly resorting to the use of herbal preparations. Adulterated herbal weight loss products containing undeclared synthetic drugs are common and responsible for many serious health damages. Because of long-term use and natural origin, these preparations give a sense of security. But herbal weight loss formulations also possess undesirable effects and, among other dangers, present a risk connected with deliberate addition of synthetic compounds, deliberate or unintentional replacement of the plant species or simply a risk of mislabeling. The most undeclared ingredients, which were illegally added include sibutramine, phenolphthalein, bumetanide, and phenytoin in the herbal called products, weight reducing and fat loss supplements. Caffeine, pseudoephedrine, theobromine and amfepramone were also found in these supplements. In this review article, the safety issues related to adulterated or mislabeled herbal products and the most common analytical methods for the detection of adulterated in the herbal weight loss products were reported.