Scientists have identified an ingredient in grapefruit juice that makes it dangerous to mix with certain drugs.

Patients on specific medifications have been told to avoid the fruit juice. Drugs that react badly to being mixed with grapefruit juice include some widely used to control blood pressure or lower cholesterol.

Flavonoids, which give grapefruit juice its bitter taste, had shouldered the blame, but the new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that the real culprit is a group of chemicals called furanocoumarins.

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