Men are being warned not to take unlicensed herbal remedies after they were found to contain a medicine that could cause life-threatening high blood pressure.
The alarm has been raised by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which said four products – Africa Black Ant, Rock Hard Weekend, Pandora and The Best – are being marketed on the internet as herbal supplements for erectile dysfunction .
But they each contain sildenafil, a prescription-only medicine that could cause dangerous levels of high blood pressure.
Consumption of sildenafil in unknown or uncontrolled quantities could be extremely dangerous and cause serious adverse reactions such as heart attacks and strokes, warns the MHRA.
The agency, which was alerted to the products by the Federal Agency for Medicinal and Health Products in Belgium and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA, said the products were a potential serious threat to public health.
“In the UK, certain medicines are categorised as POM due to their potent nature, so they should only be used under the care and supervision of suitably qualified healthcare professionals,” explained head of herbal policy Richard Woodfield.
“The unlawful sale of products posing as ‘herbal’ but containing POMs is a serious threat to public health and could be dangerous. Anyone with information about the sale or supply of products such as these should notify us immediately.”
He said people should buy only herbal medicines that are made to assured standards and registered with the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme.
Any side effects to herbal products can be reported to the MHRA via the Yellow Card Scheme http://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/.
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