Jun 28
Governments of China and Taiwan are working together to advance TCM.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has for a long time been fighting for status in a world dominated by Western medicine, and now advocates from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are joining forces to pursue global recognition for TCM.
Both the mainland and Taiwan attach great importance to TCM, calling it “an indispensable part of Chinese culture,” State Administration of TCM Deputy Director Yu Wenming told a seminar on June 11 at the third Straits Forum in the southeastern city of Xiamen.
Taiwan has more experience and advantage in “hospital management, health care, drug research and development and international marketing,” whereas the mainland boasts great development resources and a huge market, Yu said, adding that the government has made TCM vital in its medical reform plan.
Tagged with: China • Taiwan
Jun 06
Chinese medicine from Taiwan are undergoing strict regulation process in order to meet the new guidelines set by EU.
As of May 1, uncertified herbal medicine products are prohibited from entry to the EU, according to the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive. Some European media predicted traditional Chinese medicine would have to intensify efforts to regain its market share.
“From now on only products that have been assessed by the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency [in the U.K.] will be allowed to go on sale,” BBC health correspondent Dominic Hughes reported April 30.
“Manufacturers will have to prove that their products have been made to strict standards and contain a consistent and clearly marked dose.”
Tagged with: Taiwan
Mar 11
The increase demand for Chinese medicine in Taiwan has prompt the government in setting up a new evaluation system to review Chinese Medicine.
The recent increase in hospitals that provide Chinese medicine treatments has prompted the Department of Health (DOH) to launch a new evaluation system to assess them, a health official said Thursday.
Huang Lin-huang, chairman of the Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy at DOH, said the number of traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and hospital-affiliated clinics has increased from 20-30 ten years ago to 96 today, which means there is now a greater need for a more holistic and higher quality evaluation program.
Tagged with: Taiwan
Mar 08
In Taiwan, flu season also mean the rise in prices of Chinese herbs as demand cannot keep up with the supply.
With the seasonal flu infection rate showing no sign of abating, prices of popular Chinese medicinal herbs have soared, sparking widespread complaints among traders, sources have said.
Common medicinal herbs used to treat colds and coughs, such as isatis root, dahurian angelica root and Asarum heterotripides, have seen their prices rise by about 30 percent, while the prices of some valuable herbs, like caterpillar fungus, have also jumped, industry sources said.
For instance, the price of isatis root, often used in Chinese medicine to help banish colds, has increased to NT$90 per kilo from NT$67 in October, while that of dahurian angelica root has risen from NT$94 to NT$120 per kilo, said Lee Wei-chu (李威著), deputy general manager of Sheng Chang Pharmaceutical Co.
Tagged with: Taiwan
Mar 03
A study has identified a Taiwanese fungus as having anti-inflammatory effect on patients.
A fungus widely used in folk medicine in Taiwan – Taiwanofungus camphoratus – has been proven to contain an anti-inflammatory compound whether it grows in the wild or is cultivated, a local research team said Monday.
David Sheng-Yang Wang, an associate professor in National Chung Hsing University’s Department of Forestry and the head of the team, unveiled the results of the study at a news conference that was also attended by university president Shaw Jei-fu.
The study was also recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Though T. camphoratus contains some 100 components, the team was able to prove that the fungus, which can only be found in the wild growing on the inner bark of a local camphor tree called Cinnamomum kanehirai, has anti-inflammatory properties through its bioactive compound antrocamphin A.
The study also found that the same amount of antrocamphin A can be derived from T. camphoratus after being cultivated for nine months, Wang said.
In isolating the antrocamphin A compound, the study only solidified the medical credentials of the fungus, which currently sells for up to NT$500,000 per kilo when found in the wild.
It has long been prized in folk medicine for treating liver cancer, food and drug intoxications, abdominal pains and hypertension, but Wang cautioned that because there are no standards used to verify the quality of the fungus sold in Taiwan, big discrepancies exist in the price and quality available.
Tagged with: Taiwan
