Chinese traditional medicines: do you know what you are buying?
Chinese medicines are manufactured and distributed all over the world. Many people perceive them as natural, even benign and with few side effects, but regulation of human medicines fluctuates widely in different countries. Are they really as safe as we think? Previous studies have found conflicting evidence of the presence of hazardous chemicals such as Arsenic (As) and Mercury (Hg) in Chinese medicines. Now a new research paper recently published by Dr Etsuko Furuta (Ochanomizu University, Japan) and Professor Nobuaki Sato, (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) in Toxicological &