SV: Fu Zi authenticity and safety

[Guest guest]

Excellent post! Many thanks Eric!

 

 

 

Best regards

 

Carl Wallmark

 

 

 

_____

 

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För Eric Brand

Skickat: den 10 augusti 2009 21:31

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Ämne: Fu Zi authenticity and safety

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, there was some discussion on CHA about Fu Zi and its

processing. I had the chance to ask one of Taiwan's top materia medica

experts, Chang Hsien-Che (Zhang Xian-Zhe), about this so I figured that I'd

report back to the group. I also asked my teacher Dr. Zhao Zhong-Zhen in

Hong Kong about the Fu Zi, he said that his team just wrote a paper on this

that has not yet been published, I'll get the details the next time I see

him. No doubt it will add some good evidence-based material to the

discussion. In the meantime, interested parties might also read the

discussion on fu zi, chuan wu, and cao wu in Bensky et al's new materia

medica- the pharmacy material by Erich Stoger is really excellent and highly

relevant to this discussion.

 

As for the source of today's input, I should introduce Dr. Chang Hsien Che

of China Medical College in Taichung. He is a true heavyweight, he did

Taiwan's original translation of the Ben Cao Bei Yao (one of the most

important materia medica texts in the Qing dynasty, the book still used as

the official text on the Taiwan licensing exam). He translated it from

classical Chinese (wen yan wen) to modern Chinese (bai hua wen). He produced

one of the most incredible herbal pharmacy texts of all time, a 7 volume set

of color plates of virtually every substance in the marketplace, hundreds of

plates on ginseng or gui ban alone, seriously the most comprehensive work in

the Chinese world on the subject of traditional quality discernment. He also

wrote one of Taiwan's most important pao zhi books. And just finished doing

research that analyzed single medicinal and formula use based on ICD-9 codes

for three years of the Taiwan national healthcare system...assessing the

prevalence of single medicinals and compound formulas for nearly every major

disease in 100 million patient visits by 4000 doctors.

 

What I mean to say is, the guy has some fairly reasonable credentials. I say

this because it is always important to know the source of one's information.

Lucky Gabriel Fuentes of our own CHA has this guy as his PhD adviser, after

following some very good advice to study Chinese from some of our honorable

CHA members, Bob Flaws and Bob Damone.

 

Anyway, Dr. Chang provided a mini-dissertation on Fu Zi. As it relates to

this discussion, his main take-home points were: 1) Fu zi has many grades

and preparation methods, the best of which are not easily duplicated or

faked. 2) People that are seriously involved in the herbal medicine trade

know how to buy Fu Zi, they know what to look for, they are not easily

fooled. 3) Fu Zi processing is very strictly regulated (Bensky's text and

other sources support this). 4) Sichuan is the principle growing region of

Fu Zi, and inauthentic products are rare on the market.

 

In sum, his opinion is that inadequate processing of Fu Zi is not a major

problem in the industry. He acknowledges that practices of adding weight are

common with many herbs, even things like Hong Hua can have sugar added for

weight, and Xi Hong Hua (saffron) has been found with glycerin added for

weight. However, he is highly suspicious of the motives of one who would

suggest that most Fu Zi on the market is inadequately processed or is

inauthentic. In his experience, this is not a problem. He suggested that the

information was more closely linked to marketing rather than science.

Basically, he thinks that Heiner's position is largely untenable and based

on commercial interest only.

 

That said, Dr. Chang may be wrong. I may write back to CHA in two weeks with

the results of Dr. Zhao's study, which will inevitably use sophisticated

chemical analysis and assessment of hundreds of samples of Fu Zi from

throughout China. Maybe Dr. Zhao's research will confirm that Heiner was

correct the whole time.

 

Until then, I'm not sold. So far there has been only one submission,

graciously provided by Daniel A. However, it is essentially the translation

of an article/anecdote of a Chinese author whose interest, name, and

qualifications are unknown. Aconite poisoning is the most common cause of

TCM fatalities in the world, it is a big, big deal. Aconite clings on in a

very gray area of the law, it is sold as a dietary supplement or food but it

doesn't really meet the basic definition of " safe " that is legally required

for a substance to be regulated as a food product.

 

Aconite is also one of the most important substances in Chinese medicine. We

need to be extremely educated about it, we need to fight vigilantly to

preserve our access to it. We should fervently oppose hearsay and rumor that

exaggerates its risks, and at the same time we should welcome whatever real

evidence is presented, no matter what the results are. We should demand

evidence and transparency of sources, and we should always be willing to

question our experts and their motives. I respect Heiner and I'm sure he

knows more about Fu Zi than I do, but the fact remains that he has nowhere

near the expertise that someone like Chang Hsien-Che has, and he has a

commercial interest in selling his own Fu Zi.

 

If the evidence supports the idea that the Fu Zi on the market is processed

incorrectly, we need to be aware of it and we need to get safer sources

immediately. However, if indeed experts like Erich Stoger and Chang

Hsien-Che are correct, then Heiner is doing a great disservice to the field

by starting the rumor that most Fu Zi is poorly managed and dangerous,

especially if this rumor is intended for his own financial gain. It would be

a shame if practitioners parroted secondary sources, got Fu Zi banned for

all of us, and then later the evidence showed that it was safe all along.

 

Fu Zi is used by millions of patients, so I have a hard time believing that

rampant toxicity could survive long without being exposed. When you think

about how many tons of Fu Zi get analyzed by granule companies alone each

year, you have to think that someone would have caught on to the fact that

China's #1 highest risk, most visible and most strictly regulated herbal

drug is poorly managed. It appears that only ten or so licensed factories

can process Fu Zi and this is their entire specialty, I'd be really

surprised if they are totally clueless about their aconite.

 

I don't know, maybe Heiner is right about all this, and I'll get new data

from Dr. Zhao that makes me look like an idiot. I don't mind looking like a

fool and I am happy to change my mind the second the supporting evidence

comes in. I'd gladly lose face if it will provoke someone to contribute

evidence instead of " celebrity-says. "

 

Eric Brand