Herb Safety

Given the recent rash of contamination scandals in Chinese food and health products (pet food, toothpaste, farmed fish, and dried fruit), it would appear to be prudent to exercise some caution in one consumption of Chinese herbs. Some importers test a small number of herbs for some commonly used pesticides and herbicides. However, one can easily circumvent these tests by using more obscure chemicals. In addition, most importers and manufacturers do not test for anything. I used to resist the evidence on this issue when I had a vested interest in selling Chinese herbs, mainly because my suppliers had persuaded me otherwise. My very, very bad. Now, contamination of the food supply is a major concern to me, whether we are talking about agricultural chemicals, bacteria (like e. coli), fungal toxins (such as the potent carcinogens produced by the common aspergillus species), and heavy metals (like mercury in fish). At this point, I would not personally use any Chinese herbs grown in China unless I could have the safety guaranteed to me beyond any reasonable doubt. Unfortunately, any doubt would always be reasonable.

I once used to believe the main strength of Chinese medicine was its ideas, which could be applied to a wide range of health problems through the application of not only Chinese herbs, but any substance one could interpret within the traditional framework. It was several years ago that I pretty much abandoned this position and returned to my roots in modern science. Since then, I have embraced a position that the main strength of Chinese medicine was its empirical knowledge of herb effects and the potential for development of useful medicines through the efforts of modern research. I still believe this latter path is the one that is most sensible and holds the most potential. However, I am now quite wary of the raw products. A quandary indeed.