WASHINGTON — They aren’t the type of words that usually show up in Supreme Court briefs, but on Tuesday, they will be there just the same: Cobra Sexual Energy.
The court is set to hear oral arguments in Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, the latest flash point in a five-year spat between unsatisfied California men and Nutraceutical Corp., a supplement company that sells a dietary supplement called “Cobra Sexual Energy” that contains a mix of horny goat weed, yohimbe, and potency wood, and that the company boasts will help with “animal magnetism.”
The justices will focus more on the “class action” status of the case than the eyebrow-raising merits of the lawsuit. But the case points to the limited role of the Food and Drug Administration in policing the supplement industry. Dietary supplements, which include everything from vitamin C tablets to workout stimulants, are used by 75 percent of Americans, according to a recent survey from an industry trade group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition.
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