Dinitrophenol and obesity: an early twentieth-century regulatory dilemma
Abstract
In the early 1930s, the industrial chemical dinitrophenol found widespread favor as a weight-loss drug, due principally to the work of Maurice Tainter, a clinical pharmacologist from Stanford University. Unfortunately the compound's therapeutic index was razor thin and it was not until thousands of people suffered irreversible harm that mainstream physicians realized that dinitrophenol's risks outweighed its benefits and abandoned its use. Yet, it took passage of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1938 before federal regulators had the ability to stop patent medicine men from selling dinitrophenol to Americans lured by the promise of a drug that would safely melt one's fat away.
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Mitochondria are central to the regulation of energy expenditure, and targeting their activity has been a prospect for obesity therapies for decades.
“Mitochondria are central to the regulation of energy expenditure, and targeting their activity has been a prospect for obesity therapies for decades [47, 48], [49].”
From Regulation of obesity and insulin resistance by nitric oxide (2014) · cites this paper as [49]
DNP itself cannot be used as a therapy because of its narrow therapeutic window and serious adverse effects related to overdose.
“Unfortunately, DNP itself cannot be used as a therapy because of its narrow therapeutic window and serious adverse effects related to overdose 143.”
From Cellular bioenergetics as a target for obesity therapy (2010) · cites this paper as [143]
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- Authors
- Colman, E.
- Affiliations
- United States Food and Drug Administration (US)
- Corresponding author
- Colman, Eric
- Venue
- Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-07
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 115-117
- ISSN
- 0273-2300 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1982350907
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 25.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. National Library of Medicine
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Historical Medical Research and Treatments
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Medical History and Innovations
- Keywords
- dinitrophenol, obesity, anti-obesity drugs, patent medicines, drug regulation, drug safety, history of pharmacology, history of toxicology
- MeSH terms
- Dinitrophenols, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Legislation, Drug, Obesity, Physicians, Quackery, United States, United States Food and Drug Administration, Anti-Obesity Agents, History, 20th Century
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