HSA Updates on "Sri Ambikkas Omum Water"
The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) was alerted by a doctor on the evening of 4 Aug 2017 that a male in his fifties developed throat and chest discomfort, together with swelling of his airways, soon after consuming ‘Sri Ambikkas Omum Water’, which was purchased by his family member from a provision shop. The patient has since been hospitalised and is showing signs of improvement. Testing of the patient’s product sample by an HSA laboratory found it to be of high alkalinity, with a pH of more than 13. A highly alkaline product may cause adverse reactions, including injuries or burns to the tissues which come into contact with it. No other common poisons (drugs) were detected in the sample. Please refer to Annex A of the pdf version for pictures of the product.
2 After receiving the laboratory results, HSA immediately contacted the shop and importer to quarantine and stop sales of all stocks of “Sri Ambikkas Omum Water”. HSA has obtained and tested additional samples of the product, and they were found to be of a neutral pH of 7.4 to 7.9.
3 The above case of high alkalinity of the product sample taken by the patient appears to be an isolated incident and the cause is unknown. Investigations are ongoing.
4 To date, HSA has not received any other adverse event reports with ‘Sri Ambikkas Omum Water’.
More about “Omum Water”
5 “Omum” is the common name for the herb “Trachyspermum ammi”. According to traditional medicine references, the distilled oil of the herb in water, called “Omum water”, is to aid digestion and can be applied externally for pain relief.
HEALTH SCIENCES AUTHORITY
SINGAPORE
10 AUGUST 2017
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HSA Updates