Nearly one in five Chinese herbal medicines sold in Taiwan — mainly those peddled by street vendors and Chinese herbal shops — have been adulterated with Western drugs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
“Of the 5,125 samples of Chinese herbal medicines tested by the administration between 2010 and last year, 1,097 samples, or about 21 percent, were found to contain Western medicinal ingredients,” the administration’s Division of Research and Analysis Director Chen Hui-fang (陳惠芳) told a press conference in Taipei.
Chen said approximately 91.7 percent of the adulterated medicines were purchased from martial arts clinics, herbal stores and street vendors across the nation, with 65.5 percent of them containing just one kind of Western medication and 34.5 percent being mixed with more than one.
“The majority, or 28.8 percent, of the tested drugs were erectile dysfunction medicines, followed by painkillers (25 percent), central nervous system stimulants (10.3 percent) and diuretics (9.6 percent),” Chen said.
Citing examples, Chen said the face and legs of a middle-aged man started swelling last year after he used a bottle of what a martial arts clinic claimed to be a therapeutic herbal-extract powder to treat his cough.
“The man sent the product to a local health department for examination and it was found to contain nine types of Western medications, including the fever reducer acetaminophen, the antihistamine chlorpheniramine, the cough suppressant dextromethorphan and the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide,” Chen said.
It is worth noting that 627 of the tested herbal medicines were smuggled into the country illegally from China and as many as 82.6 percent of those were laced with Western medicines, among which 86.1 contained erection-boosting drugs such as sildenafil citrate — the active ingredient in Viagra — and tadalafil, she added.
Chen said heart disease patients taking nitroglycerin should pay particular attention to the sources of their herbal medicines, as they could suffer a loss of consciousness and even shock if they accidentally ingested sildenafil citrate-contaminated herbal products.
Adulteration of Chinese herbal medicines with Western drugs constitutes a violation of Articles 20 and 22 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法), she added.
“People who manufacture or import adulterated drugs are subject to a maximum prison term of 10 years and a fine not exceeding NT$10 million (US$333,000), while those who peddle, supply or try to sell these deficient products could face a sentence of up to seven years in prison and a maximum fine of NT$5 million,” Chen said.
Chen urged the public to refrain from buying medications from suspicious sources to reduce their risk of consuming potentially dangerous unauthorized drugs.
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