Chinese medicine switches to substitutes

[Guest guest]

New Sunday Times - Sunday 12th May

 

Special Report

Chinese medicine switches to substitutes

 

LONG labelled a bad boy by conservationists, the tradional Chinese medicine

(TCM) industry has often been accused of fuelling the devastating trade in

wildlife.

 

Few, however, know that some TCM companies have been using substitutes for

endangered animal parts for a long while now.

 

" We are partly to blame, or at least the previous generation is, " said Eu Yan

Sang TCM development manager Lee Jok Keng.

 

" The previous generation used to proudly display rhino horns and tiger bones

in glass cases because it was important to show customers that they had the

real thing.

 

" When people see this repeatedly, they tend to think that this is what TCM is

all about, " he said.

 

Things have changed. Companies like Eu Yan Sang, one of the biggest outside

China, are using dog and sailong rodent bones in place of tiger bones, and

buffalo horns instead of rhinoceros

horns.

 

Animals are farmed, and rare plants like the ginseng are cultivated where

possible.

 

Parts of endangered wildlife that have been successfully substituted include

the tiger bones, musk, rhinoceros horns, bear's gall, pangolin scales, saiga

antelope horns, sea turtle, sea horse

and deer antlers.

 

Lee said substitutes were not new to the industry and had come into use when

wildlife like the tiger became scarce and the cost of using them prohibitive.

 

Lee said the last time he heard about rhino horns being used, it was being sold

for RM200 per four grammes.

 

Being a listed company with a reputation to protect, Lee said Eu Yan Sang's 62

outlets worldwide would not think of using an endangered animal for fear of

public humiliation.

 

However, Lee concedes that he cannot speak for the rest of the industry

although he adds that the costs are too high for most to take a risk.

 

Public perception is quite a different thing. " A therapeutic dosage of four

grammes of rhinoceros horns can be substituted with 40 grammes of buffalo horns

to take care of a fever.

 

" This is why people believe that the real thing is better, " he said.

 

However, misconceptions abou\t TCM abound and one was connected to aphrodisiac

properties of wildlife.

 

Lee said the sea horse and a tiger's penis both contained such properties, but

one would need a very much larger dosage of tiger's penis to have the effect

that a small amount of sea horse would.

 

" Also, if four dinner companions hope to solve their problems by sharing a bowl

of soup with three sea horses in it ... they will be disappointed, " he said.

 

A measured dose would have to be consumed over a period of time to have a

desired effect and a oneoff dinner of the exotic kind probably would not bring

any healing benefits.

 

Another misconception is that every TCM product contains some endangered animal

or other, to which Lee points out that 75 per cent of the 12,000 or so products

Eu Yan Sang sells are plant-based and only 15 per cent animal-based.

 

Despite changes within the industry, problems persist, said Lee. The greatest

is convincing users to switch from endangered wildlifebased products to ones

containing substitutes.

 

" It's tough... you are dealing with a cultural system where people believe that

when they eat something, they are consuming its energy and so retain a part of

it, " Lee said.

 

But change, however difficult, is possible, said Lee. " It will happen if

society is educated about TCM, and poverty eradicated, so that the rural poor

stop trapping wildlife for the

pittance middlemen pay them. " o specialreports

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday,12 May 2002

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