This week marks the fifth anniversary of the death of major league pitcher Steve Belcher. The Baltimore Orioles pitcher was 23 years old when he died during a spring training workout in February 2003 after taking diet pills containing ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra.

Ephedra, also known as ma huang, is an herbal product that was sometimes marketed to consumers as “herbal Fen Phen” after the diet drug combination was recalled in 1997. In April 2004, the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of supplements containing ephedra, citing its increased risk of causing serious injury or death.

According to reports following his death, Belcher was taking Xenadrine RFA-1, an ephedra-based supplement, when he collapsed during team workouts with a fever of 108° and died several days later. A coroner’s report found that ephedra had played a role in Belcher’s death.

Belcher’s widow subsequently filed a $600 million ephedra lawsuit against the manufacturer of the supplement her husband was taking at the time of his death.