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Banned Chinese medicine still on sale in United Kingdom

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Chinese Medicine is available for purchase in several Western countries

A Chinese medicine which was banned over 10 years ago is still on sale in the United Kingdom. Jingzhi Kesou Tan Chaun Wan was banned in July 1999 after it was revealed that the pills can cause cancer. Over 900 bottles are currently circulated around the UK.

The distributor of the pills, Ekong International (UK) Ltd., recalled the medicine last month, but only received a quarter of the shipment back. The pills are sold in white bottles with approximately 180 pills per pack.

The shipment of the banned medicine arrived from China with an English label placed over the original Chinese version with the symbol for Aristolochia, a banned and highly dangerous toxic genus of plants.

Head of herbal policy at the MHRA, Richard Woodfield released a statement saying that "Aristolochia is a highly toxic plant that can cause serious injury and even death if taken. I would strongly advise anyone who has used this product to stop taking it and to immediately consult their doctor."

Last month a criminal court in Britain heard how a woman developed cancer and kidney failure after taking pills containing Aristolochia.


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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