A coroner’s report shows that Lori McClintock, the wife of the California Republican congressman Tom McClintock, died from dehydration due to gastroenteritis caused by “adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion”, it was reported on Wednesday.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) said McClintock’s death, ruled an accident by the Sacramento county coroner, illuminates the risks surrounding the booming yet under-regulated $54bn dietary supplement and herbal remedies business.
White mulberry leaf is typically associated with addressing obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
In 2018, a study in Pharmaceutical Biology concluded that mulberry leaves “could be a promising therapeutic option” but that “further investigations should be performed to substantiate the potential of mulberry leaves in practical uses”.
Tom McClintock has represented a district in northern and central California since 2008. On 15 December, he returned from voting in Washington to find Lori, 61, unresponsive at their home in Elk Grove. They had been married since 1987.
Lori McClintock, who worked in real estate and was a mother of two, complained of “an upset stomach” the day before her death, the coroner’s report noted.
“Our family’s darkest day and most terrible nightmare has come,” McClintock said in a Facebook statement. “Lori is gone. And with her all the light, warmth, fun, friendship and love she brought everywhere she went and to everyone she met.”
An autopsy showed that McClintock had a “partially intact” leaf in her stomach. The original coroner’s report listed cause of death as “pending” but an amended report from 10 March, obtained by KHN but not publicly released by the coroner, noted the dehydration and gastroenteritis.
The outlet said it was unclear how McClintock consumed the white mulberry leaf, whether as a supplement or by directly ingesting it.
Daniel Fabricant, chief executive and president of the Natural Products Association, told KHN connecting McClintock’s death to white mulberry leaf was “completely speculative”.
Fabricant, who monitored dietary supplements for the Food and Drug Administration under Barack Obama, said the case should have been reported to the FDA by the coroner or the family. It is unclear if that happened.
“People unfortunately pass from dehydration every day, and there’s a lot of different reasons and a lot of different causes,” Fabricant told KHN.
In April, the No 2 Democrat in the US Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, introduced legislation aimed at bolstering oversight of the dietary supplement industry.
The bill requires entities to register supplements with the FDA and include information ahead of sales that, among other things, address “certain claims characterizing the relationship between certain nutrients in the supplement and a disease or a health-related condition”.
Durbin said on the Senate floor Americans have a “right to know” what is in vitamins, minerals and other supplements.
“Many people assume if that product is sold in the United States of America, somebody has inspected it, and it must be safe,” Durbin said. “Unfortunately, that’s not always true.”
