1. On 6 November 2000, U.S.A FDA announced PPA Alert because FDA received a study conducted by scientist at Yale on 11 May 2000 that found out some people taking PPA experienced hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding of the brain). Eventhough the risk was low, those scientist said that the risks of using PPA outweight the benefits (artinya resikonya lebih besar drpd manfaat yg didapat) and recommended that consumers no longer using products containing PPA. PPA was used for nasal decongestant (pembuka jalan pernapasan), cough/cold products (obat flu), weight control products (obat penurun berat badan). The PPA Update stated that FDA still taking steps to remove PPA from all drugs products and has requested that all drug companies discontinue marketing of products containing PPA. You can see the the Yale's Report of hemorrhagic stroke of PPA in this link.
2. Health Sciences Authority in Singapore announced pharmaceutical companies who market their product in Singapore should voluntarily withdraw and discontinue the distribution of products containing PPA. HSA Singapore was doing this as a precautionary measure in line with recent call by U.S.A FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) . Slimming product that using PPA is not available for sale in Singapore. Singapore Ministry of Health assures that there are sufficient safer alternatives non-PPA-containing preparation available. The HSA website that I have hilited above is containing the PPA alert letter and that letter was out in 10 Nov 2000. The amount of PPA in those products ranging from 75 mg to 12.5 mg in each tablet. Those products in the letters are over-the-counter(OTC) medicines that sold without doctor pescriptions.
3. For all of you who received email spam that announced the brand name of products using PPA please check into this Snopes explanation, Barbara Mikkelson stated that those email spam are containing part of the truth since some of products' name that was announced in the email was outdated. Some drug companies already replaced the PPA in their product to another safer ingredients such as Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride.
4. So why does Decolgen in Indonesia still using PPA? I asked my pharmacist friend and she told me that in Indonesia, the POM (Pengawasan Obat dan Makanan) announced that it is safer for drug companies to use PPA as long as it is under 15 mg each tablet. My Decolgen from Indonesia is using 12.5 mg PPA in each tablet. What a big difference of POM compared with FDA and HSA.

So what should you do? I would tell you all to be sure that you are not consuming PPA or Phenylpropanolamine HCl anymore even if the risk of brain stroke is low. Eventhough if you only use decolgen containing PPA one at a time, the risk is still there. This is because of the victims of PPA are not only as stated in the Yale's report( young women who were using PPA as an appetite suppressant (penekan rasa lapar) for their diet for days), but also because I read a report somewhere that a young man experienced stroke after using PPA as a cold medicine for days. A low risk mean there is will always be a risk, it is not a zero risk. Until the scientist able to get to know why those people suffer from brain stroke after consuming PPA, better if you not use PPA for any reason. Check your drug ingredients or ask your pharmacist because some drug companies have not replace PPA yet.

Is Phenylpropanolamine HCl different from Phenylpropanolamine?

No, Phenylpropanolamine HCl is Phenylpropanolamine in its salt form (dalam bentuk garamnya). It is not Phenylpropanolamine that containing HCl but a salt form of Phenylpropanolamine (PPA). Many drugs are made in salt form because it make the drug more stable.

UPDATE: Read this Article from Yale-Haven Hospital website that said FDA estimates 200-300 strokes that attributes to PPA each year. What a big number! Also, PPA already pointed out as a stroke cause from 1990.