ACUTE HEPATITIS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF A CHINESE HERBAL PRODUCT, MA-HUANG

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.