Chinese Medicine Sources Criticized
10/30/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Chinese medicine sources criticized
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 30, 1999
While China looks to expand the global market for its traditional
medicines, conservationists are trying to ensure that won't mean a
greater threat to tigers, rare plants and other endangered wildlife
often used in the remedies.
At a conference today organized by the Chinese government, World
Wildlife Fund officials were urging Beijing to meet strict standards
barring use of endangered species as it develops its market.
"Our mission is clear," Peter DeBrine, an official in the U.S.-based
WWF, said. "We must work together to develop new global standards
that would guide traditional Chinese medicine markets away from
endangered species toward more environmentally healthy alternatives."
DeBrine, speaking before today's gathering, predicted Chinese
traditional medicine sales worldwide will grow from an annual volume
of just under $1 billion now to $12 billion in the next decade.
While China uses Western medicines, it also still relies on the
traditional medicines from complex recipes of plant and animal parts
that date back some 3,000 years.
Tiger bones are used to treat rheumatism and to promote bone healing,
while rhino horn has been used for fevers, said Huang Lixin,
president of the San Francisco-based American College of Traditional
Chinese Medicine.
Though the use of some animals, including tigers and rhinoceroses, is
already illegal in China, demand remains strong and an underground
market fed by smuggling continues to flourish, said James Harkness,
director of WWF's China program.
But the endangered species aren't a necessity in making medicine.
Traditional doctors in China long have substituted other materials
for tiger and rhino parts because they have become so rare, Huang
said.
One example: Bones of the sailong, a north China rat used in Tibetan
medicine, are certified in China as a substitute for "Tiger Bone
Wine," a famous tonic.
"Any professional in the field of oriental herbal medicine would
recognize that for every substance supplied by endangered species
there are many effective substitutes," Huang said.
The trick, she said, is getting consumers to accept that such
substitutes are just as good as the endangered ingredients.
Education campaigns are needed to convince consumers, Huang said. Her
organization has been promoting the use of substitutes among
traditional Chinese medicine users in San Francisco and Canada over
the past year.