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Is the agent in bitter orange that "promotes weight loss" an ephedra analogue of sorts? I thought it was - seemed like it would be banned for use in herbal substances along with Mao Hung and all the rest, but the laws seem to be slow catching up with the scams. Where are you finding the ingredients list? Just through general searches? I love debunking - it's a hobby
Any recommended sites would be greatly appreciated 
Yah, just doing general searches. A lot of these pill pushers will put the ingredients in their website, but hide them so it's kind of like trying to find Gilligan's Island in the middle of the Pacific or something. Originally Posted by biogeek
Mrs. Jim-Is the agent in bitter orange that "promotes weight loss" an ephedra analogue of sorts? I thought it was - seemed like it would be banned for use in herbal substances along with Mao Hung and all the rest, but the laws seem to be slow catching up with the scams. Where are you finding the ingredients list? Just through general searches? I love debunking - it's a hobby
Any recommended sites would be greatly appreciated
I usually use www.supplementwatch.com and www.quackwatch.org to research the ingredients. (BTW at Quackwatch you can read up on why it takes so long for laws to be passed against these supps - basically dates back to the Supplement Act passed in 1994 which tied the hands of the FDA.)
The April 19th issue of Forbes Magazine had an article on the whole diet pill controversy that you might find of interest. As far as bitter orange goes, let me quote what the article said on that:
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Bitter orange has become the next big diet thing. Like many of his peers, Chinery has been hawking an ephedra-free replacement, Xenadrine EFX, which includes citrus aurantium, or bitter orange. Citrus aurantium contains synephrine, which, like ephedrine and amphetamine, is a stimulant that mimics adrenaline. Its fans say that synephrine, like ephedra, can, in combination with caffeine, suppress appetite and boost metabolism so the body burns its own fat.
But adrenaline-like compounds that boost metabolism have a habit of also boosting blood pressure and heart rate. "They are adjusting synephrine to the same pharmacological potency so that it will have the same cardiovascular and neurological effects of ephedrine," says Arthur Grollman, professor of medicine and pharmacology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. "Without waiting another nine years for people to die, we can predict with great assurance what the toxic effects will be." Chinery's new product also throws in hordenine, a stimulant banned by horse racing organizations that deem it a prohibited substance; Cytodyne claims the 2 milligrams of hordenine in each Xenadrine EFX pill is pharmacologically inactive. In February, New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer called bitter orange ephedra's "kissing cousin" and asked the FDA to ban it, too.
Not likely anytime soon. Since dietary supplement makers don't have to prove safety, Congress has relied on public studies for facts. In 2002 the National Institutes of Health funded 569 grants worth $171 million for such research. But Paul Coates, director of the NIH's office of dietary supplements, says his budget is too slim to settle unanswered questions about components in these products. Few researchers are using NIH funds to study bitter orange. One of them is Christine Haller, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a veteran of the ephedra wars. But she is just starting.
The bitter-orange hype machine is running far ahead of credible research. Recent ads for Xenadrine EFX in fitness magazines blare that it has been "clinically tested" to outperform ephedra-based products in "boosting of metabolism and resulting caloric expenditure." On what is this based? The first claim comes from an abstract of a study submitted to a conference called "Interaction of Physical Activity and Nutrition" in 2002. The abstract details a study of 10 healthy adults-puny compared with a Sanofi-Synthelabo weight loss study with 6,600 subjects. The 10 took servings of Xenadrine EFXand reported that it enhanced metabolism and caused no untoward events. The study was never published in any recognized, peer-reviewed medical journal. The second claim cites another abstract, summarizing a study of six people, published in the Journal of American College of Nutrition in October 2002, which insists Xenadrine EFX did not cause heart rate change but increased metabolism. It ends by saying, "future studies should examine the effects of this dietary supplement over the longer term on body weight." More than 18 months later the paper on which the abstract rests has not been reviewed by peers or published in a recognized medical journal.
Bitter orange has become the next big diet thing. Like many of his peers, Chinery has been hawking an ephedra-free replacement, Xenadrine EFX, which includes citrus aurantium, or bitter orange. Citrus aurantium contains synephrine, which, like ephedrine and amphetamine, is a stimulant that mimics adrenaline. Its fans say that synephrine, like ephedra, can, in combination with caffeine, suppress appetite and boost metabolism so the body burns its own fat.
But adrenaline-like compounds that boost metabolism have a habit of also boosting blood pressure and heart rate. "They are adjusting synephrine to the same pharmacological potency so that it will have the same cardiovascular and neurological effects of ephedrine," says Arthur Grollman, professor of medicine and pharmacology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. "Without waiting another nine years for people to die, we can predict with great assurance what the toxic effects will be." Chinery's new product also throws in hordenine, a stimulant banned by horse racing organizations that deem it a prohibited substance; Cytodyne claims the 2 milligrams of hordenine in each Xenadrine EFX pill is pharmacologically inactive. In February, New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer called bitter orange ephedra's "kissing cousin" and asked the FDA to ban it, too.
Not likely anytime soon. Since dietary supplement makers don't have to prove safety, Congress has relied on public studies for facts. In 2002 the National Institutes of Health funded 569 grants worth $171 million for such research. But Paul Coates, director of the NIH's office of dietary supplements, says his budget is too slim to settle unanswered questions about components in these products. Few researchers are using NIH funds to study bitter orange. One of them is Christine Haller, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a veteran of the ephedra wars. But she is just starting.
The bitter-orange hype machine is running far ahead of credible research. Recent ads for Xenadrine EFX in fitness magazines blare that it has been "clinically tested" to outperform ephedra-based products in "boosting of metabolism and resulting caloric expenditure." On what is this based? The first claim comes from an abstract of a study submitted to a conference called "Interaction of Physical Activity and Nutrition" in 2002. The abstract details a study of 10 healthy adults-puny compared with a Sanofi-Synthelabo weight loss study with 6,600 subjects. The 10 took servings of Xenadrine EFXand reported that it enhanced metabolism and caused no untoward events. The study was never published in any recognized, peer-reviewed medical journal. The second claim cites another abstract, summarizing a study of six people, published in the Journal of American College of Nutrition in October 2002, which insists Xenadrine EFX did not cause heart rate change but increased metabolism. It ends by saying, "future studies should examine the effects of this dietary supplement over the longer term on body weight." More than 18 months later the paper on which the abstract rests has not been reviewed by peers or published in a recognized medical journal.
I haven't tried it but go for it if u like. I have heard of a supp. that's been out for a while on the market but is costly that uses sepherine (think I spelled it right), that works like epherdrine and new research shows it is safer than it's ephedrine friend.
