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Chemical testing revealed two banned stimulants, and two novel formulations, in sports and weight-loss supplements, researchers found.

In six different brands of supplements, the two banned stimulants found were 1,3-dimethylamylamine (1,3-DMAA) and 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (1,3-DMBA), according to Pieter Cohen, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, and colleagues.

The two novel formulations, which were previously unidentified, were 1,4-dimethylamylamine (1,4-DMAA) and 2-amino-6-methylheptane -- the latter of which is better known as octodrine, once sold as a pharmaceutical in Europe, they .

Synthetic stimulants -- analogs of amphetamine, methamphetamine, and ephedrine -- have long been found in hundreds of sports and weight-loss supplements. Until recently, the most common was 1,3-DMAA, but in 2012 the FDA took steps to remove it from the market due to legal and safety concerns, mostly cardiovascular risks.

It wasn't long before a replacement popped up -- 1,3-DMBA -- and in 2015, the FDA also banned it from the market.

Cohen's group wanted to assess whether these two synthetic stimulants were still finding their way into the supplement supply, and if additional analogs had cropped up.

Sure enough, in analyzing six brands that contained substances that might refer to an analog of 1,3-DMAA (such as Aconitum kusnezoffii, DMHA, or 2-amino-isoheptane), they found the two banned stimulants and the two previously unidentified compounds. Four of the supplements were marketed as sports supplements and two as weight-loss supplements.

Cohen noted that octodrine was found at a dose of 72 mg per serving; in Europe, the drug was prescribed at much lower doses, ranging from 8 to 33 mg.

He added that 2 weeks ago, at SupplySide West, a major supplement exposition, for "purportedly importing just these types of drugs in drums, sometimes labeled as 'not for human consumption,' to be used as ingredients in supplements."

The researchers recommended that consumers should avoid supplements labeled as containing 2-aminoisoheptane, 2-amino-6-methylheptane, DMHA, or Aconitum kusnezoffii, and that physicians should "remain alert to the possibility that patients may be inadvertently exposed to experimental stimulants when consuming weight-loss and sports supplements."