Traditional Chinese medicines should be classified as drugs and sold through licensed pharmacies, according to scientists. At present, the medicines are regulated as foods and sold in health food shops, but chemists are concerned that, unless they are properly tested and controlled, the herbal remedies may pose dangers to those using them.
"There's an opportunity to make money but there's a very serious risk because you are dealing with medically functional products," said Dr Zudong Liu, a medicinal chemist and managing director of Great Chinese Herbal Medicine (UK). "Any medically functional products will have some instance of toxicity."
Understanding that toxicity means that it can be controlled, but that requires proper testing and training.
Professor Robert Hider, head of biomedical sciences at King's College London, said that Chinese medicines must not go on being marketed as foods. "They need to be properly controlled and administered through licensed pharmacies," he said.
Traditional Chinese medicine is a system of healthcare that has existed for more than 2,000 years. It includes herbal medicines, acupuncture, acupressure and massage. Its use is steadily growing in the UK. Dr Liu says that demand for his products has increased by 20% each year for the last few years.
Dr Liu and Prof Hider will be speaking today at the launch of a government-sponsored report on the potential of Chinese traditional methods for western medicine. It is the result of a fact-finding mission last October to China and Singapore, led by scientists from British universities and pharmaceutical companies.
Prof Hider, academic leader of the mission, said he and his colleagues were impressed by the lengths to which practitioners in Chinese medicine were going to underpin their work with science by carrying out properly controlled clinical trials.
There were also efforts to classify and standardise the preparation of different medicines. Practitioners were also highly educated, requiring five-year degrees.
By contrast, the practice of traditional Chinese medicine in Britain is largely unregulated and does not need any qualifications.
"People can open anything - nobody will check their qualifications, nobody will check their product standards," said Dr Liu. He added that the British government must draw up clear rules to govern the sale of traditional medicines and that regulation would also help to raise confidence in potential patients.
Chinese medicines are also attracting the attention of the leading pharmaceutical companies, which are looking to share some of the medicines' £15bn global market. Prof Hider's team also came back with potential leads for drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease and anti-bacterial compounds for cancer.
