Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices announced this week that it has revoked the licenses of all medications sold in the country that contain the herbal supplement kava kava. Concerns over the substance's safety have grown in recent months after health officials from several countries linked kava kava to serious liver damage. The announcement comes three months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning detailing the supplement's possible association with liver injury.

Dozens of reports of liver toxicity, six involving liver failure, have been reported in Germany since kava kava began to be sold in pill form. Last year, German pharmaceutical giant Merck recalled all of the company's products that contain kava kava. Sales of the supplement have already been halted in France and Switzerland and suspended in Britain.

German health regulators came to their decision after determining that other anxiety and tension drugs were available that posed less of a risk to consumers than kava kava.