Herbal Supplement Has Some New Yorkers Talking, Instead of Coughing
Some claim success with Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, but experts warn of the risks of taking such products
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A bottle of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa. PHOTO: JOHN TAGGART FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Feb. 22, 2018 11:18 a.m. ET
If there’s one thing New Yorkers love more than discovering a new secret remedy, it’s telling other New Yorkers about it.
“I’d been super sick for a week and half and couldn’t stop coughing,” said Alex Schweder, an architect and professor of design at Pratt Institute.
That’s when his girlfriend gave him a bottle of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, an “herbal dietary supplement with honey and loquat,” according to the label.
“This started working in 15 minutes,” said Mr. Schweder. “I’ve probably gotten about five people to try it, but I’ve told many more.”
Mr. Schweder’s girlfriend, Oberon Sinclair, owner of a creative agency, first learned about the herbal supplement nearly 30 years ago when she was living in Hong Kong.
The remedy, often referred to simply as Pei Pa Koa, is sold both in cough-drop form and more commonly in 10-ounce bottles in Chinese markets and Chinese pharmacies for approximately $7 as well as online through third parties for up to $70.
Taking herbal supplements can involve health risks, including when they are used with medicines, consumed in excess or taken instead of prescription medication, said Dr. Keith Brenner, specialist in pulmonary medicine at Columbia University Medical Center at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“I think people that use these things may not even disclose them to the physician, and it’s a problem,” he said. “There’s been well-established interactions between herbal and prescription, and the doctor can pick up on it if the patient discloses it.”
The Food and Drug Administration advises consumers to speak to a health-care provider before taking a supplement and to be wary of any product claims that sound too good to be true. The agency doesn’t have the authority to review dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness.
Herbal remedies with loquat have been produced in China for hundreds of years. The Nin Jiom Medicine Manufactory began producing Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa in Hong Kong in 1946. The Chinese characters on the bottle translate to “Beijing, in memory of my mother loquat thick paste.” The company began marketing it to mainland China, North America, and Europe in the 1980s. Competing loquat syrup remedies are still produced in Hong Kong, but they remain less popular.
“All of a sudden, everybody is talking about it,” said Ching Weh Chen, owner of Pearl River, a Chinese market in New York City where the syrup is sold for $7.80. “Chinese people have known about it for a long, long time. It goes back to Qing dynasty, but now it’s Caucasian customers coming in and asking for it.”
Sue Decottis, a physician in internal medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center who also has a private practice, says herbals can have some value and she will, on occasion, recommend them to her patients. She hasn’t prescribed Pei Pa Koa. “There’s also the placebo effect with anything like that, but there’s no real money behind it to do big studies,” Dr. Decottis said.
“I got a bottle of it in the height of my flu which seemed to hang about this year for two months deep in my chest and not let go,” said Matthew Modine, the actor currently starring in Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Mr. Modine bought the product on Amazon and paid about $30.
“My only trepidation was that it was coming from a country with different standards,” said Mr. Modine, who was familiar with loquat from his childhood in Los Angeles. “They’d fall off a tree and we’d pick them up and throw them at cars.”
“With respect to influenza, the most critical time to get attention is when the virus hits because antivirals like Tamiflu need to be administered within the first 48 hours if they’re going to be effective,” said Dr. Brenner. “If herbals are the first line of defense, we’d lose that window, especially if someone has other medical problems, and there’s a higher risk the flu virus will lead to hospitalization or even death.”
New York State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker urged everyone to get a flu shot and said anyone with flu symptoms should see their health-care provider.
Poet Max Blagg, who learned about Pei Pa Koa from an acupuncturist in Chinatown, said: “I was a little apprehensive. If you look on the label, there’s a thousand herbs you’ve never heard of.”
Mr. Blagg passed the recommendation along to painter James Gilroy, who had the flu for three weeks. “He showed me a bottle with some crazy Chinese writing on it and I thought no, I’m going to go to a doctor,” said Mr. Gilroy.
Appeared in the February 26, 2018, print edition as 'Herbal Tonic Stirs Interest, Caveats.'
