Scanning the shelves of an herbal medicine shop in Los Angeles' Chinatown, the drug sleuth had no trouble spotting contraband. Richard Ko, a pharmacologist in the drug safety branch of the California Department of Health Services, zeroed in on a red, gold and white box of pills called Ansenpunaw.
The package insert says in English that the "herbal medication" treats "headache" and "vertigo" and has other benefits such as "strengthening muscles," "blackening hairs" and "lubricating the intestines."
Unfortunately for anyone attracted by those claims, the product contains mercury sulfide, a mineral long used in China as an antibiotic, which can cause nerve and kidney damage, Ko said. Because of that, Ansenpunaw is subject to state import restrictions.
In a sample of the pills that Ko and colleagues tested, the mercury level was more than 1,000 times higher than the U.S. safety threshold for a drug.
"There are problem herbal products out there, especially imported products," Ko said.
With the growing interest in Asian herbal medicines--part of America's tightening embrace of alternative therapies--some health experts worry that a growing number of consumers are buying and ingesting products that may not only be worthless but also possibly dangerous.
Underscoring that problem is a newly released state health department study of 260 Asian patent medicines in California by Ko and his colleague Alice Au, a health department chemist. They found that more than a third of the products tested violated at least one import restriction.
Ko, who has doctoral degrees in pharmacology and pharmacy from USC, said he believes in traditional Chinese medicines. Indeed, his wife used them after a bout with cancer. But his report underscores some potentially serious dangers for consumers.
Some medicines the state tested contained unsafe levels of the toxic metals arsenic, lead or mercury. Some contained prescription drugs--often without saying so, which can be very dangerous to an unsuspecting customer. Other products violated Food and Drug Administration regulations against claiming to cure a disease without having proved it. Still others were made with material from endangered animal or plant species.
One example, according to the state report, is Cow's Head Brand Tung Shueh Pills, said to improve "circulation of blood" and "strengthen bones and muscles." Lab tests found the pills contain three prescription drugs, including the tranquilizer diazepam, or Valium, and the muscle relaxant chlorzaxazone.
