A. Nadir et al., ACUTE HEPATITIS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF A CHINESE HERBAL PRODUCT, MA-HUANG, The American journal of gastroenterology, 91(7), 1996, pp. 1436-1438
Herbal medicines are widely perceived by the public as being healthful
and innocuous. A number of herbal medicines have now been linked with
hepatotoxicity. We report a case of acute hepatitis associated with t
he use of ma-huang, a herbal product derived from plants of the Ephedr
a species, which is advertised as being useful for causing weight loss
and enhancing energy levels, Given the lack of reports in the literat
ure of hepatotoxicity with ma-huang and ephedrine, we speculate that t
he mahuang product our patient took contained some other ingredient or
contaminant or was misidentified, Our report and others in the litera
ture, which we review, indicate that the clinician should consider her
bal medicines as a possible cause of unexplained liver injury.