At first glance, herbal remedies would seem to have a lot going for them. Instead of harsh chemical compounds, these supplements purportedly rely on natural plant-based materials that herbalists have found to be effective in treating a wide array of human ills, including erectile dysfunction. And as a general rule, they’re far cheaper than prescription medications.

So much for superficial appearances. FDA investigators have found that many of these so-called herbal remedies for ED, including various supplements touted as Herbal Viagra, contain the same chemicals as the drugs for which they offer alternatives.

However, because these natural remedies, such as herbal Viagra, are not subject to the same stringent testing and regulations as prescription drugs, the amount of those active ingredients varies widely. In some cases, it may be too little to have much effect, while in others the amount of the active ingredient may be far higher than recommended maximums for daily intake.

What’s the Big Deal?

Some of you may be wondering why there’s all this fuss about getting the active ingredients of Viagra for a fraction of the price you’d pay for it in brand-name Viagra. While the unadvertised presence of sildenafil citrate — Viagra’s active ingredient — in some of these herbal remedies might seem like quite a bonus, you have no way of knowing for certain what other unlisted ingredients might be in herbal Viagra. And for men who’ve opted for herbal Viagra because they have medical conditions that make the use of sildenafil dangerous, getting that little extra “bonus” could potentially be life-threatening.

To take just one example of a specific supplement purported to be the herbal equivalent of Viagra, consider the case of Herb Viagra. In early 2015, the FDA warned consumers to avoid using the herbal remedy after laboratory analysis of the product confirmed the presence of sildenafil in Herb Viagra.

Potentially Life-Threatening

The regulatory agency pointed out that the use of Herb Viagra — or any similar herbal remedy — could be particularly dangerous to men who were also taking nitrate-based drugs, prescribed to treat angina and hard-to-control high blood pressure. Because men taking these drugs are warned to steer clear of PDE5 inhibitors (popular ED drugs such as Viagra), they might be looking for herbal alternatives to these prescription drugs and innocently put themselves in harm’s way.

The FDA website features a page devoted to Tainted Sexual Enhancement Products, a growing list of herbal remedies that FDA inspectors have found to contain “hidden drug ingredients.” Such hidden ingredients are most often one or more of the active ingredients found in prescription ED drugs, such as Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis. Among the herbal products on the FDA’s list are Goldreallas Original; Shengjingpian; Rhino 5, 7, 8 and 9; Duramaxxx; and Big Penis Male Sexual Stimulant, all of which were found to contain varying amounts of sildenafil.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

These product advisories from the drug regulatory agency might well represent only the tip of the iceberg. The FDA notes that it doesn’t have the resources necessary to test all products on the market that might contain possibly hazardous hidden ingredients. It adds: “Enforcement actions and consumer advisories for tainted products only cover a small fraction of the tainted over-the-counter products on the market.”

Herbal sexual enhancement supplements hit the headlines in the fall of 2015 when former NBA star Lamar Odom was found in a coma after allegedly ingesting unknown quantities of such products at a legal Nevada brothel outside Las Vegas. It was also alleged that Odom had taken unknown quantities of cocaine as well.

Put on Life Support

Although Odom eventually recovered, his experience put him into a Nevada hospital on life support for a few days. The sexual enhancement drugs that Odom allegedly took were Reload 72-Hour Max and Libimax, both of which were found by the FDA to contain hidden drug ingredients. In June 2013, the FDA announced that testing revealed that supplements under the Reload label contained sildenafil. According to USA Today, the manufacturers of Libimax had recalled the product in 2009 when tests revealed that it contained tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis.

Although FDA tests have shown some herbal ED remedies to contain varying quantities of the active ingredients in prescription ED drugs, others do offer herbal ingredients that herbalists have long found useful in the treatment of impotence. Such natural ingredients include yohimbine, horny goat weed, ginseng, and saw palmetto. However, consumers have no reliable way to ascertain exactly what ingredients — and at what quantities — are in these so-called natural remedies.

Like Russian Roulette

Interviewed by USA Today, Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital, likened taking one of the herbal ED remedies to playing Russian roulette. “You don’t know what you’re getting any time you open a bottle of ‘herbal Viagra,’” he said.

The very fact that some ingredients in these herbal remedies are natural doesn’t mean that they’re safe. Yohimbine, an alkaloid chemical derived from the bark of the Yohimbe evergreen tree native to central Africa, can exacerbate existing kidney and liver problems, and cause overstimulation and nausea as well.

If you’d prefer to rely on FDA-approved medications to treat your symptoms of ED, you can learn more about these drugs and place an online order at eDrugstore.com, a reliable online drugstore that sources the drugs it sells from licensed U.S. pharmacies. To get started, visit eDrugstore’s ED Medication Guide.