Toxic herbs in traditional Chinese medicine? #YunnanBaiyao, one of Chinas most famous traditional medicine producer, recently admitted its homonymous powder formulations contain toxic components, Beijing Times reported on Thursday. The prominent producer has revised its medicine package inserts saying that “the medicine contains ‘processed’ #Kusnezoff #monkshood root, and the other ingredients are omitted,” in accordance with new rules issued by the China Food and Drug Administration at the end of last year. The Kusnezoff monkshood root contains #aconitine, a poisonous #alkaloid. Overdosing may lead to paralysis, sickness, vomiting and other poison symptoms, or even death in stronger reactions. Yunnan Baiyao’s Director Secretary Wu Wei told Beijing News that the Kusnezoff monkshood root that Yunnan Baiyao contained is an aconite drug material that has been processed, with its toxic components being minimized after a unique process and production, and thus is within safe range. The Yunnan Baiyao powder formulations have been banned from sale in Hong Kong and Macau since they were found to contain #aconitine by the Hong Kong Department of Health in February 2012. Many users on Sina Weibo think it’s acceptable for a #drug to contain toxic ingredients, as long as it’s within the proper dose. Others are more worried about their health. Here is a snapshot of those comments.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 03:45:01 +0000