Western ingredients and fourth-grade toxins found in Chinese medicine
Updated Friday, February 26, 2010 9:53 am TWN, The China Post news staff
The Consumers' Foundation of Chinese Taipei found 14 percent of the Chinese medicine contains ingredients of western medicine, and even discovered fourth-grade toxin in some of the examined Chinese medicine, local media reported yesterday.
Conducting a test on Chinese medicine available to the public in 2009, the foundation found 26 of the 187 Chinese medicine samples contain Western ingredients and 35 percent of the problematic medicine was imported from China. Pain-relieve medication was the most dangerous as 7 of the 16 tested samples were found mixed with western medicine.
With the result of the test similar to that of 2008, it seems the problem of Chinese medicine mixed with western medicine has not been improved, added Hsieh Tien-jen, chairman of the foundation.
Diazepam (二氮平), a mental tranquilizer, also a kind of fourth-grade toxin, was found in 3 samples. However, they were prescribed to cure constipation. Despite no severe immediate problems, this ingredient is likely to cause addiction after long-term use, said Yu Kai-hsiung, the publisher of the foundation's magazine
As for the examination of heavy metal content of Chinese medicine, only three out of the 228 samples did not conform to the current regulation, which requires the content to be lower than 100 parts per million (ppm). Compared with Hong Kong's rule which demands the content to be below 15 pmm, the looser rule in Taiwan should be adjusted as some patients do suffer from lead poisoning after they take Chinese medicines with an excess of heavy metal, explained Hsieh.