NANNING, April 16 (Xinhua)
-- Tight regulations need to be issued
to control China's traditional Chinese
medicine (TCM) sector, experts said at
a just-concluded conference held in
the wake of a major industry
scandal.
A mechanism should be
established to measure the contents of
TCM products and ensure their safety,
said Luo Jiabo, dean of the
Chinese Medicine College of Southern
Medical University, at the
event.
"The government should
also tighten its supervision of TCM
manufacturers," he said during the
three-day 2013 China-ASEAN Summit Forum on
Traditional Medicine, which concluded on
Sunday in Yulin City of south
China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region.
Luo's remarks came
after Chinese media outlets exposed
dodgy TCM practices that have shocked
consumers and seriously damaged the
reputation of the industry.
In
March, the Guangdong Baoshantang
Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a medicine
manufacturer in southern Guangdong, was
reported to be using cheap but
ineffective herbal materials to produce
Vitamin C Yinqiao Tablets, one of
the most commonly used cold medicine
in China.
In addition, the
raw herbal materials purchased by the
now-disgraced company were found to
have been smoked by sulfur to
keep them fresh.
Smoking herbal
materials in this way for preservation
purposes is a dirty secret in
the industry, but the common practice
can leave a certain amount of
sulfur dioxide in the materials, Luo
said.
According to the dean,
some greedy retailers store large
amounts of herbal materials and smoke
them with sulfur to stop them
getting mildewed, and the sulfur
dioxide left on them can damage
consumers' livers and kidneys if they
are taken in big doses over a
long time.
The World Health
Organization recommends a daily sulfur
intake of no greater than 0.7 mg
per kg of body weight. Long-term
exposure to high amounts of sulfur
dioxide can damage the human body,
especially the respiratory system, according
to experts.
Huang Hanru, deputy
director of the China Medical
Association of Minorities, said it is
necessary to guarantee the quality of
TCM products at the industry's
root, which is medicinal herb
growers.
"The government should
enhance education among growers to
prevent the raw materials from being
contaminated," he said.
He
added that medicine manufacturers should
strengthen their sense of responsibility,
and that any manufacturer found making
illegal or unqualified TCM products
should be severely punished in
accordance with the law.
A
national standard for the amount of
sulfur dioxide left on TCM products
will soon be published, in an
attempt to curb the abuse of
sulfur in the industry following the
scandal, according to the country's
food and drug watchdog.
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