Breaking Down Traditional Chinese Medicine

For more than 3,000 years, traditional Chinese medicine has been an integral part of Chinese culture and the predominant medical treatment for a large part of the population. In recent decades, the practice has gained popularity in countries around the world, creating a multimillion-dollar global industry. Despite the popularity if a given traditional Chinese medicine, the actual contents frequently in the form of a pill, powder or tea are often hard to ascertain. Undeclared or mislabeled ingredients can pose serious health risks. In the 1990s, for example, the toxic herb Aristolochia fangchi was confused for the anti-inflammatory plant Stephania tetrandra,leading to more than 100 women suffering kidney failure, many of whom later developed cancer of the urinary system. In addition to the mislabeling, a big problem with the medicines was their lack of dosage instruction. Typically, the packaging did not include labels describing how much of a particular ingredient is included in each serving, what dosage people should take or how often they should consume it.