A year and a half ago, when the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of diet supplements containing ephedra, many doctors worried that people who had been taking them would switch to other appetite suppressants of questionable safety.

Bitter orange peel was one often mentioned, because it is the main ingredient in many products marketed as "ephedra free."

Bitter orange peel, weight-loss specialists warn, may be as dangerous as ephedra, which had been the subject of thousands of reports of adverse reactions, including heart attack, stroke and sudden death. Its main component, synephrine, is chemically similar to ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra.

Find out why bitter orange supplements are considered as dangerous as the ephedra diet pill at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/health/policy/11cons.html?ex=1131858000&en=101bc5c663ab477b&ei=5070.