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FDA issues warning about online weight loss supplement

Caitlyn Shelton

The FDA tested nine samples that were labeled as tejocote, some sold on popular sites like Amazon and Etsy, and found them to contain yellow oleander, which is a poisonous plant native to Mexico and Central America. (Credit: FDA)

(NewsNation) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Wednesday that an online weight loss supplement labeled “tejocote root” was found to be substituted with a toxic plant.

The FDA tested nine samples labeled as tejocote, some sold on popular sites like Amazon and Etsy, and found them to contain yellow oleander, a poisonous plant native to Mexico and Central America.

Ingestion of yellow oleander can cause neurologic, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular adverse health effects that may be severe or even deadly, the FDA said. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cardiac changes and dysrhythmia.

The FDA listed the products they found to include yellow oleander:

The agency urged people who have taken the products to contact their health care provider immediately even if the products have not been recently used.

The FDA launched its probe into tejocote root after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report about the supplement in September 2023. It detailed an emergency room doctor calling the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System in 2022 to report a 23-month-old child experiencing cardiac issues after consuming its mother’s tejocote root marketed for weight loss.

While the FDA is still investigating, it expressed concerns other products marketed as tejocote (including with other names such as Crataegus mexicana, Raiz de Tejocote, and Mexican Hawthorn) may contain yellow oleander. Find the complete FDA warning at this link.