Asian commercial herb supply toxicity issues, was re: nephropathy

[Guest guest]

Hi. I'm Don St.Clair, LMT, newly posting onto this list. FYI I have worked in

the Chinese herbal industry for 4 companies including Health Concerns and Min

Tong Herb Corp. of Taiwan, the last as marketing co-coordinator for the

professional community of acupuncturists in the US. I have been independently

in private practice as a bodyworker/healer, Western and Chinese herbalist,

and holistic health counselor, consumer advocate, and writer since returning

to beautiful peaceful Oregon 7 years ago from my involvement with said

corporate world. I came here via the Paracelsus elist. And does anyone know

how to set to digest?

 

Herbs grown in China have all sorts of possibilities of quality and

contamination. Min Tong got all their raw herbs from brokers in Hong Kong,

and handled all importation to their factory in Taiwan from there, thereby

allowing them to avoid having to spray what I believe was primarily fungicide

on the bulk herbs. To repeat, they're conscientious about avoiding that

contaminant. Herbs compounded into various Patent medicines might be more

likely contaminated. And also of even more concern, maybe even the herbs

imported and made into popular OTC formulas by the less-than-conscientious

megacorporations selling herbal formulas now. Always good to ask about how

the herbs were imported into the country.

 

Second, there is the problem of the modernization of agriculture and

(herbaculture?) in China. A lot of stuff grown there has been what we might

call " organic " because of both the growing practices there being the same as

have been for untold generations, and simply because pesticides have been too

expensive! I talked with one person from some US company in the professional

Chinese herb business (the concerned folks you would meet doing a table at an

acupuncture symposium, not the ones in the scary Las Vegas leasure suits and

gold chains at a health food convention/trade show). He had gone to China on

tour of farms and factories, and told me of being proudly shown copious

pesticide usage in efforts to impress with their modernity.

 

And these are fun pesticides like perhaps DDT made and regulated in the PRC,

mind you, not even those meeting our minimistically aware Western so called

environmental standards here in the US.

 

Third, I have heard that sometimes People's Animal and Plant Byproducts

Herbal Factory #4 and People's Animal and Plant Byproducts Herbal Factory #5

might be having a little internal political struggle to show whose products

are most effective, and plant #5 might spike their version of Yin Chiao with

some crude pharmaceutical drug for that added little lift. Crude drug also

implies a very basic prepaired extract of some herb taken just a few steps

into the pharmaceutical manufacturing process, the classic most recent

example I remember being the flap over Jin Bu Wan Anodyne sedative.

 

My two cents for your appraisal,

Don

nice list, by the way! I'm also a new papa of a 10 month old daughter, and am

slow on the email end of things these days...

[Guest guest]

to change settings, go to /myonelist and select

Chinese Herbal Medicine - you have access to the settings link and you can

change from email to digest.

[Guest guest]

I share your concerns about china's modernization; they already have a

horrible environmental record and now are practicing robbern baron style

capitalism, to boot!