Alumni Profile: Alberto Sabucedo ’01

Alberto Sabucedo

Last spring, a student approached FIU forensics and chemistry lecturer Alberto Sabucedo ‘01 with a hunch about a so-called “dietary supplement” advertised as a 100 percent natural way to enhance male sexual performance.

Journalism graduate student Mauricio A. Gutierrez ’03 suspected there might be a health risk with “Niagra,” sold both over-the-counter and on the Internet for erectile dysfunction.

Sabucedo was intrigued.

So the FIU lecturer, who completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at FIU in 2001, began to run a series of tests on the pills, sold as Niagra or ActraRx. Sabucedo’s chemical analysis confirmed that the “100 percent natural” pills actually contained prescription-strength quantities of the drug Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. Sildenafil is available only through prescription because of the risk of serious adverse effects in individuals with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.

Sabucedo’s research prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue a warning last November to consumers “not to purchase or consume” the dietary supplement as it “can be dangerous to their health and even life threatening.” FDA conducted its own analysis of the dietary supplement and affirmed Sabucedo’s findings.

An interaction between Sildenafil and certain prescription drugs containing nitrates can cause significant lowering of blood pressure. Individuals with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease often take nitrates – and also often experience erectile dysfunction as a result of their condition. The FDA warning instructed anyone taking the dietary supplement to stop immediately.

The Food and Drug Administration further directed its field personnel to halt the importation of the drugs.

Sabucedo says he is pleased to know his research may prevent someone from being harmed.

“I did it for the public and as a service and for the student,” he said. “I don’t know how many people out there will benefit from not taking this junk. It is good to know someone out there who may have gotten in trouble, did not get into trouble. It should never have been on the market.”

The USDA warning came after Sabucedo’s research was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association in February 2004. The research letter, titled “Sex, Lies and Niagra,” detailed the mass spectrometry analysis Sabucedo conducted on samples of both Niagra, purchased in a local store, and Actra Rx, purchased online.

Sabucedo used the project as a educational opportunity for two undergraduate students, Keith C. Mueller and Brandi L. Bellissima ‘03, who were learning to use the spectrometer. The students even helped him brainstorm the title of the JAMA letter.

“I said we have to come up with something catchy,” Sabucedo said. “They were throwing up all sorts of things: ‘Niagra falls.’ I remembered the movie ‘Sex, Lies and Videotapes,’ and we went with that. It is probably the most-read letter because of the title.”

Sabucedo said he was pleased that JAMA left the names of all the students who participated in the ledger at the end of the research letter. “I share my success with them.”

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