title: Use of Chinese herbal medicine 'meizitanc' in pregnancy: report of three cases.
abstract: The Chinese herbal medicine 'meizitanc', known as 'LiDa Dai Dai Hua Jiao Nang' (Kunming Dali Industry and Trade, Kunming, Yunnan, China) has been used by many women to support weight loss, even though life-threatening side-effects and deaths have been reported. We report the outcomes of three cases of exposure to 'meizitanc' during early pregnancy. In the first case, the pregnancy continued after the patient stopped taking the drug and at 38 weeks of gestation, the patient delivered a healthy infant. However, in the second and third cases fetal cardiac activities were not detected on obstetric follow-up and both pregnancies were terminated due to missed abortion. To our knowledge, this is the first report of exposure to meizitanc during pregnancy. Although herbal medicines are presumed to be safe because of their natural origin, consumption of such products may be dangerous due to the content of undeclared drugs, adulteration with multiple substances and contamination with toxic metals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, University of Mersin School of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey. filizcayan@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cayan
authors.forename: Umut
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dilek
authors.forename: Esen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Akbay
authors.forename: Ramazan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gen
authors.forename: Saffet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dilek
mesh_terms: D000030:Abortion, Missed / Q000139:chemically induced*; D000328:Adult; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C525839:meizitanc