Potential risks of health food products containing yohimbe extracts

EDITOR, - We wish to express our concern about the availability of yohimbe preparations on the health food market. We submitted capsules that contained yohimbe extracts (imported from France by Nutramin, Amsterdam) to thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography and recovered, besides several other alkaloids, at least l mg of yohimbine per capsule. The recommended daily dose of 8-10 capsules would therefore provide at least 8-10 mg of yohimbine a day, and the other alkaloids might also …