The banned ‘fat shredder’ 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) is experiencing a resurgence as an illicit body building supplement, poisons specialists warn.

The yellow crystalline substance was tried in the 1930s as a weight-loss drug and subsequently banned in the US because it caused fatal hyperthermia.

But it has resurfaced in Australia and abroad, often being sold online and labelled as turmeric, the researchers from the NSW Poisons Information Centre wrote in a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia last week.

The centre received only 1-4 calls a year about DNP exposures from 2002 to 2016, but this spiked to 10 calls at last count in 2018.