drugs of animal, vegetable and mineral origin, and includes no fewer than
8160 prescriptions.
Secret recipes (also known as ‘prepared medicines’) were the equivalent
of modern patent medicines. They were first produced during the Song
dynasty (AD960–1234) and were dispensed by government agencies such as
the Imperial Benevolence Pharmacy.^149 A variety of dose forms were avail-
able including pills, liquids and honey boluses. By the time of the Ming
dynasty (1368–1644) more than 60 000 formulae had been recorded in the
1406 book entitled Formulas of Universal Benefit (Pu Ji Fang). In recent
years many of these formulae have passed into public usage, but there may
be as many as 5000 licensed patent medicines still circulating in China. The
most famous factory is at the Tong Ren Tang pharmacy in Beijing, which
has been operated by the same family since the late seventeenth century.
Availability of CHM
In the UK, Chinese herbalism is the most prevalent of the ancient herbal
traditions currently being practised.^150 About 500 different herbal materials
are imported into the UK and are worth several million pounds each year.^151
In addition an unquantified amount of material enters the country illegally
by suitcase smuggling. There is ongoing concern about the lack of controls.
In the USA legislation now allows the import of Chinese herbal materials,
because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has lifted earlier restric-
tions that limited imports to ethnic groups. This has prompted the wider
availability of prepared medicines.
There are now over 3000 clinics in the UK that prescribe Chinese herbal
remedies for various disorders and the use of these remedies seems set to
increase further, given the apparent success being reported,^152 despite a lack of
firm evidence of effectiveness in many cases. In the USA a survey of 575 users
of CHM also showed an extremely high level of satisfaction.^153
Practice of CHM
Herbs are given to achieve eight general outcomes in TCM. These are:
- cooling
- diaphoresis
- elimination
- emesis
- mediation
- purging
- tonification
- warming.
152 | Traditional medicine