The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will ban the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra, also known as ma huang. Sometimes marketed as herbal Fen Phen, supplements containing ephedra have been linked to numerous side effects cases, some involving heart attack, stroke or death.

In November 1997, the FDA warned about the safety of supplements marketed as herbal Fen Phen, whose main ingredient is ephedra. So far, the agency has received more than 1,000 reports of side effects linked to herbal Fen Phen or other ephedra supplements, including at least 150 deaths.

Concerns about the safety of ephedra became more pronounced following the death in February of major league pitcher Steve Belcher from heatstroke. Belcher was taking a dietary supplement containing ephedra at the time of his death.

The commissioner of the FDA has sent letters to 62 manufacturers of ephedra supplements to notify them of the ban, which is scheduled to go into effect on April 12, 2004.