Ephedra, the popular dietary supplement marketed as a weight-loss pill and energy booster, is about to come off the market, courtesy of the FDA. But that doesn’t mean everything left on the market is perfectly safe.

A number of recent reports have noted that ephedra users are turning to other dietary supplements that offer the same effects as the now-banned pills. And many of those, the reports say, are not much safer, if safer at all, than ephedra.

In fact, Dr. Ray Woosley, a scientist who worked with Food and Drug Administration officials on ephedra, told Business Week, "It is very likely that the substitutes for ephedra are going to be just as toxic."

Those replacement substances include guarana, bitter orange, green tea and grape seed extract. Research into these supplements indicates that some of them, such as bitter orange, can interfere with the effects of prescription medications. Some also can affect a person’s blood pressure.

Ephedra was frequently sold at convenience stores and often marketed as an “energy booster” or weight-loss aid. Some brands specifically marketed to truckers, and pills containing the substance are frequently found near checkout counters at truck stops. They include Metabolife, Ripped Fuel, Up Your Gas, Truckers Luv It and Yellow Jackets.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced late in 2003 that the FDA would ban the sale of supplements containing ephedra. The path to that decision was not easy; federal law makes it difficult for the FDA to ban the sale of supplements, holding it to a higher standard than the agency has to meet to ban a drug.