Purpose: This study was carried out in order to find a reliable method for the fast detection of adulterated herbal food supplements with sexual enhancement claims. As some herbal products are advertised as "all natural", their "efficiency" is often increased by addition of active pharmaceutical ingredients such as PDE-5 inhibitors, which can be a real health threat for the consumer. Methodes: Adulterants, potentially present in 50 herbal food supplements with sexual improvement claims, were detected using 2 spectroscopic methods - Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared - known for reliability, reproductibility, and an easy sample preparation. GC-MS technique was used to confirm the potential adulterants spectra. Results: About 22% (11 out of 50 samples) of herbal food supplements with sexual enhancement claims analyzed by spectroscopic and spectrometric methods proved to be "enriched" with active pharmaceutical compounds such as: sildenafil and two of its analogues, tadalafil and phenolphthalein. The occurence of phenolphthalein could be the reason for the non-relevant results obtained by FTIR method in some samples. 91% of the adulterated herbal food supplements were originating from China. Conclusion: The results of this screening highlighted the necessity for an accurate analysis of all alleged herbal aphrodisiacs on the Romanian market. This is a first such a screening analysis carried out on herbal food supplements with sexual enhancement claims.
We present a case of a 3 years and 8 months old female child with a generalized maculoerythematous rash associated with positive serologies for Epstein Barr virus, Echovirus and Coxsackie that raise suspicion of GianottiCrosti syndrome. The extremely low prevalence of this syndrome and the very long duration of the disease are highlighted, the rash can persist for up to 4 months. We discuss this case both in order to make health professionals aware of the existence of this rare condition, which should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a viral rash, and to educate the community (school, kindergarten) that tends to isolate affected children during persistence of the rash, which is considered contagious.
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