Drug & supplement interaction

Ackee + Citalopram

Citalopram brand name: Celexa.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 13, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Ackee and Citalopram in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Ackee and Citalopram

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Citalopram and Ackee in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

Worth understanding: our licensed dataset holds no drug-interaction record for Ackee at all — not against Citalopram, and not against any other medication we track. This verdict therefore rests on the absence of any recorded data, not on research that looked at this combination and found nothing. We cannot rule an interaction out.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Ackee safety at a glance

Ackee overall Use caution Ripe, properly prepared fruit is eaten as food, but unripe fruit and seeds are dangerously toxic.
Pregnancy Unsafe When the unripe fruit is ingested. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of the ripe fruit during pregnancy and breast-feeding;... Read the full pregnancy detail
Breastfeeding Unsafe When the unripe fruit is ingested. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of the ripe fruit during pregnancy and breast-feeding;... Read the full breastfeeding detail

Pregnancy & breastfeeding ratings are from Natural Medicines (Therapeutic Research Center) — the full detail is in the Special populations card below. Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Citalopram and Ackee? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Ackee and Citalopram May Share a Side Effect

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do. One of them is worth acting on rather than waiting out — marked below.

  • Seizures Worth acting on Additional detail

    Ackee

    “Orally, consumption of ripe ackee fruit is well tolerated. However, consumption of unripe ackee is unsafe.

    Serious Adverse Effects (Rare):

    Orally: Consumption of unripe ackee fruit can cause severe hypoglycemia and subsequent liver damage. Unripe ackee fruit can also cause Jamaican vomiting sickness, characterized by severe bouts of vomiting, followed by seizures, coma, and death.”

    Ackee · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in epilepsy.

    “Oral consumption of unripe ackee fruit results in toxicity called Jamaican vomiting sickness which includes acute onset of severe vomiting. This will usually subside but then be followed by another bout of vomiting, seizures, coma, and death within 12 hours.”

    Ackee · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in epilepsy.

    3 sources cited
    1. 30279. Joskow, R., Belson, M., Vesper, H., Backer, L., and Rubin, C. Ackee fruit poisoning: an outbreak investigation in Haiti 2000-2001, and review of the literature. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 2006;44(3):267-273. PubMed
    2. 30289. Golden, K. D., Kean, E. A., and Terry, S. I. Jamaican vomiting sickness: a study of two adult cases. Clin.Chim.Acta 10-15-1984;142(3):293-298. PubMed
    3. 94873. Katibi OS, Olaosebikan R, Abdulkadir MB, Ogunkunle TO, Ibraheem RM, Murtala R. Ackee fruit poisoning in eight siblings: implications for public health awareness. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2015;93(5):1122-3. PubMed

    Citalopram

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Citalopram. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Ackee but not commonly for Citalopram: stomach pain, low blood sugar, liver problems and a severe allergic reaction.

Effects for Citalopram come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Ackee come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 106,559 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Citalopram that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

Special populations

Ackee in Pregnancy & Breastfeeding

Pregnancy And Lactation Unsafe

When the unripe fruit is ingested. There is insufficient reliable information available about the safety of the ripe fruit during pregnancy and breast-feeding; avoid using.

DISCLAIMER: This tool is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as specific medical advice. Patients should consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about therapies and/or health conditions.© 2026 Therapeutic Research Center

From our Q&A

Questions About Ackee or Citalopram

These are real questions from readers, answered by the pharmacists at HelloPharmacist — written by a person, not generated from a database. Each one covers Ackee or Citalopram, not necessarily both, but if one is close to what you were about to ask it will usually go further than a database entry can:

Not quite your question? Ask our pharmacists directly — it is free, there is no account required, and answers usually come back within 24 hours.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Citalopram

This page covers Ackee only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Citalopram page lists 191 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Grapefruit (major), Lithium (major), St. John's Wort (major) and 5-htp (moderate).

By severity: 4 major · 144 moderate · 43 minor.

Open the Citalopram interaction page

How much people look this up

Where Ackee and Citalopram Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Ackee
Steady interest

#1,194 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Citalopram
Top 5%

#50 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Ackee reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 13, 2026. The Ackee and Citalopram records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Ackee

What is Ackee?

Ackee
  • Food source (cooked ripe fruit)
  • Traditional digestive remedies
  • Folk treatment for fever
  • Traditional wound and skin care
  • Folk use for aches and pains

Ackee is best known as a food — the national fruit of Jamaica — but only the fully ripe, properly prepared aril is safe to eat. Unripe ackee and its seeds contain natural toxins that can cause severe, sometimes fatal poisoning, so there is no good evidence supporting it as a medicinal supplement. If you eat ackee, use only ripe, commercially canned or properly prepared fruit.

Blighia sapida · Sapindaceae · Ripe fruit (aril); seeds, leaves, and bark used traditionally · Fresh ripe fruit, canned fruit, traditional decoctions of leaves or bark

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Ackee is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Ackee record says about it on its own.

Ackee: dosing

There is no established medicinal dose for ackee, and it is not recommended as a supplement. When eaten as a food, only the fully ripe, properly cleaned and cooked aril should be consumed, and seeds should never be eaten.Because there is no standardized or proven medicinal dose, and because of the real risk of poisoning, do not use ackee as a remedy.

From our Ackee monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Ackee monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Citalopram

What Is Citalopram Used For?

Brand name: Celexa

Citalopram — available as tablets (including brand Celexa), oral solution, and capsules — is used to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults. This includes depression that causes persistent low mood, loss of interest in everyday activities, changes in sleep or appetite, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating.

Citalopram capsules are specifically indicated for adults with MDD but are not intended for starting or stopping treatment — another citalopram product must be used for dose titration. All forms are indicated for adults only; citalopram tablets are not approved for use in children.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Citalopram

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (106,559 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Fatigue 6,992 reports
Nausea 6,019 reports
Headache 5,146 reports
Toxicity to various agents 5,100 reports
Diarrhea 4,832 reports
See full Citalopram drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Ackee

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Ackee — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
0Moderate
0Minor
2,829No known interaction
2,829 No interaction
No interaction 2,829 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Ackee against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,829 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Ackee list.

See the full Ackee interactions page
See every supplement checked against Citalopram, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Ackee References

The 8 references that drive our Ackee monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. Anon. Toxic hypoglycemic syndrome - Jamaica, 1989-91. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1992;41:53-5.
  2. Lebo DB, Ditto AM, Boxer MB, et al. Anaphylaxis to ackee fruit. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1996;98:997-8. PubMed
  3. Meda HA, Diallo B, Buchet JP, et al. Epidemic of fatal encephalopathy in preschool children in Burkina Faso and consumption of unripe ackee (Blighia sapida) fruit. Lancet 1999:13;353:536-40. PubMed
  4. McTague JA, Forney R Jr. Jamaican vomiting sickness in Toledo, Ohio. Ann Emerg Med 1994;23:1116-8. PubMed
  5. Larson J, Vender R, Camuto P. Cholestatic jaundice due to ackee fruit poisoning. Am J Gastroenterol 1994;89:1577-8.
  6. Joskow, R., Belson, M., Vesper, H., Backer, L., and Rubin, C. Ackee fruit poisoning: an outbreak investigation in Haiti 2000-2001, and review of the literature. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 2006;44(3):267-273. PubMed
  7. Golden, K. D., Kean, E. A., and Terry, S. I. Jamaican vomiting sickness: a study of two adult cases. Clin.Chim.Acta 10-15-1984;142(3):293-298. PubMed
  8. Katibi OS, Olaosebikan R, Abdulkadir MB, Ogunkunle TO, Ibraheem RM, Murtala R. Ackee fruit poisoning in eight siblings: implications for public health awareness. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2015;93(5):1122-3. PubMed

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Ackee and Citalopram Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Ackee with Citalopram?
We do not list a known interaction between Ackee and Citalopram. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Ackee and Citalopram have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to one of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
Does Citalopram interact with any supplements?
Yes. Citalopram has documented interactions with 191 supplements in our database — Ackee is not one of them. The Citalopram interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Ackee monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Citalopram drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Citalopram supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Citalopram, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 8 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Citalopram and Ackee?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.