Salmonella fears prompt recall of herbal supplement

Federal drug regulators issued their first-ever mandatory recall Tuesday to a company selling several products containing the herbal supplement kratom and contaminated with Salmonella.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it issued the order because Triangle Pharmanaturals of Las Vegas refused to cooperate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that the kratom Salmonella outbreak was linked to 11 hospitalizations among 28 people who caught the strain.

The FDA is advising consumers to discard the products that are part of the mandatory recall, which it says include, but isn’t limited to: Raw Form Organics Maeng Da Kratom Emerald Green, Raw Form Organics Maeng Da Kratom Ivory White and Raw Form Organics Maeng Da Kratom Ruby Red.

The company, which promotes itself as a consulting firm, may manufacture, process, pack and/or hold additional brands of food products containing powdered kratom, FDA says.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the move was “based on the imminent health risk” of the prod- uct’s contamination.

“We continue to have serious concerns about the safety of any kratom-containing product, and we are pursuing these concerns separately. But the action today is based on the risks posed by the contamination of this particular product with a potentially dangerous pathogen,” said Gottlieb, a physician.

Kratom, which grows naturally in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, is often used to ease opioid withdrawal and was already under fire at the FDA. The agency has warned consumers to avoid the supplement in any form as it is linked to dozens of deaths.

Kratom is “totally unregulated” and there is a “lack of quality control,” says Walter Prozialeck, a professor and chairman of the pharmacology department at Midwestern University’s college of osteopathic medicine.

The FDA says there is strong evidence kratom affects the same opioid brain receptors as morphine and appears to have properties that expose people to the risks of addiction and abuse. Neither kratom nor its components have been proved safe or effective at treating any medical conditions, the FDA says.

Triangle officials could not be reached for comment.