Guest guest Posted May 15, 2002 Report Share Posted May 15, 2002 Hi All, What are YOUR favourite Websites for professional data on CHM? wrote [re Ginseng Labelling]: > ... since so many chinese herbs are misidentified, but still sold > anyway, I see no problem with this. It mainly affects those who > stand to make a profit on direct to consumer sales. It should > have zero effect on professional practice and informed consumers. > I will prevent deception. Hopefully, accurate labelling will prevent deception. However, without good quality control, there is still the possibility of fraud. A label can state anything but make fraudulent claims. There simply is not enough wild ginseng available to supply demand. Because it is VERY expensive [could it possibly be $300,000/kg, as stated below?], most ginseng products are cultivated. Even then, they are expensive and unscrupulous suppliers often yield to the temptation to adulterate their products with cheap substitutes. Paraphrasing one source [ http://alternativehealing.org/ren_shen.htm ]: Price & Quality: Chinese Manchuria wild ginseng roots fetch highest prices, up to US $300000/kg. Top quality American wild ginseng roots can fetch US$ 1200-2000/kg. Cultivated American roots sell for US $120-260/kg. Ginseng is sold in powder form, in capsules, & in extract. Better quality roots are sold in root form. Since ginseng is expense & difficult to produce, adulteration/substitution w cheaper products is very common in packaged ginseng products. Some manufactured " ginseng " products contain Mandragora officinarum (mandrake, a poisonous narcotic) w hyoscine bromide, rauwolfia alkaloids w hypertensive drug reserpine, cola w caffeine, phenylbutazone (a carcinogen), & aminopyrine. An independent test commissioned by health food trade journal “Whole Foods” found that 60% of ginseng products are worthless because they contained too little of herb to have any biological effect; 25% contained no ginseng at all That site [ http://alternativehealing.org/ ] has some very good data on CHM, but other sites have great data also [www.chinaginseng.com, RHMI, Botanicum, Crane Herbs, NewCenturyNutrition, etc; see http://homepage.eircom.net/~prohers/herblink.htm for other sites]. The best CHM site that I know is the Korean site [Tradimed]. It has unbelievable detail and cross-referencing, but it is costly to join. Best regards, WORK : Teagasc Staff Development Unit WWW : http://www.research.teagasc.ie/grange/search.htm Email: < Tel : 353-; [in the Republic: 0] HOME : 1 Esker Lawns, Lucan, Dublin WWW : http://homepage.eircom.net/~progers/searchap.htm Email: < Tel : 353-; [in the Republic: 0] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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