and/or found out about the true nature of these dubious products and their
purveyors, these marketers no longer could make easy money. Hence, many
of them simply could no longer exist because they did not have the technical
resources to switch to the manufacture and marketing of genuine products
that contain non-adulterated quality ingredients. (2) Since its passage
in October 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA)
opened a floodgate for marketers who saw this as a golden opportunity
to sell anything derived from herbs, be it a chemical drug (e.g., over-the-counter
drug) or a powerful herbal formula not meant for self medication. Although
this is still ongoing, making copious amounts of money for marketers of
these questionable products, the adverse publicity of these products and
the expected changing of the US regulatory climate will put an end to
this bonanza in the not-too-distant future, despite efforts by some segment
of the industry to ‘educate’ the consumers about only the
good aspect of these herbs. After all, how much longer can ephedrine/ephedra
be sold as a ‘safe’ daily supplement to our diet (‘dietary
supplement’) without the government’s taking a serious look
at DSHEA’s adequacy for regulating drugs like this?
Against this backdrop is the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA),
a trade organization dedicated to the service of its membership, with
its mission “to promote the responsible commerce of herbal products.”
This is good, of course. But it doesn’t mean all its members are
responsible and honest people. To some members, it’s strictly a
matter of legal compliance and/or maneuvering. As long as they can find
ways to stay within legal bounds (which sometimes can stretch one’s
imagination), they will sell anything that can bring in fast profits.
But there is often a fine line between what’s legal and illegal.
And sometimes something is legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical,
yet this is sold or practiced everyday by the rich and powerful in all
walks of life, not just in the herbal supplements industry.
Up until as recently as 6 or 7 years go, there was no lack of unscrupulous
marketers among AHPA members, many of whom were also smooth politicians.
At the time, much of the sales in herbal products (a good volume generated
by AHPA members) could be attributed to adulterated products whose prices
were often lower than those of the raw materials from which they were
supposedly produced. A typical example is powdered aloe vera gel products
which often were labeled as 98% or 100% pure (200X concentrate –
meaning 1lb obtained from 200lbs of fresh gel) and yet being sold for
less than the raw material cost. [I have chosen the powdered product as
an example because it is easily analyzed and proven ‘innocent’
or ‘guilty’ as opposed to the liquids that are definitely
more numerous, whose adulteration is much more widespread. And any serious,
honest manufacturers or marketers could have them analyzed and switch
to the real, but much more expensive, ones; though that remains a real
challenge to this day. I know from personal experience that this is a
fact because after having developed a pure aloe vera gel powder, we couldn’t
sell a single pound of it for several years until a couple of quality-conscious
manufacturers/marketers started incorporating it in their products. After
all, why would ‘any’ marketer make much less profit by voluntarily
paying several times more for its ingredient, especially considering its
chance of being caught is close to nil?]. These types of products are
still being sold by member companies despite the fact that these companies
are not charitable organizations with a mission of donating dietary supplements
to the general public, nor is there a benevolent supplier from whom they
obtain herbal ingredients for free. This same group and others also continue
to sell products on the borderline of safety and legality. Despite all
these, I can still say that AHPA has matured considerably during the past
few years. It is now run by professionals, at least at the top level of
management. And, unlike prior years, its members now consist of some companies
and individuals with considerable expertise in the tradition and/or science
of herbs. In a diversified organization (especially a trade organization)
like this, there is always the constant juggling act of balancing the
desire for profits with the desire for the public good within its membership.
The latter can be seen in AHPA’s efforts in educating the public
by expertly addressing and responding to bad scientific/clinical studies
published in reputable medical and scientific journals, or to misinformation
on herbs promulgated by various media, some of which I have also written
about in this Newsletter. These efforts, I believe, had been slowly but
surely gaining credibility for AHPA as a fair (and not too obviously self-serving)
organization among the general public and an increasing number of non-herbal
professionals. I hope it continues this good work and refrains from listening
to a minority of members and others who have been trying to steer it back
to a truly self-serving trade group. Again, the mission of AHPA is “to
promote the responsible commerce of herbal products,” which is being
carried out by the majority of its members who, I believe, are sincere
in their efforts to provide safe and effective herbal products as legitimate
alternatives to current harsh conventional pharmaceuticals. I only wish
AHPA’s upper management had the authority to crack down and expel
offending members who sell adulterated ingredients/products starting with
ones that can be easily analyzed!
My Favorite Tonic – Lycium Fruit
The concept of tonics appears to have been lost among the younger generation.
Back in the days before vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional supplements
(and way before the current popular pursuit of ‘uppers’ and
‘downers’), people took general tonics (usually in the form
of a liquid) to help invigorate (or strengthen), restore, and maintain
their health. There were also other tonics for different functions of
the body, such as stomach tonic, digestive tonic, blood tonic, nerve tonic,
vascular tonic, etc. Many people still take tonics, though they take them
under other names. And in recent years, dietary supplements known as ‘energy
boosters’ are the craze. These are not true tonics, and they don’t
provide energy nor do they restore health. Rather, they are simply central-nervous-system
stimulants, giving the consumer an instant high or mental jolt, then let
him/her down again. With consumption of these ‘energy boosters’
in such large quantities in the United States, you would think we are
a nation of weaklings or sleepyheads who can’t function without
resorting to taking central stimulants to keep alert, or a nation of druggies
persistently pursuing the ultimate high. Either scenario would not be
flattering to our national image. I believe this phenomenon is the direct
result of the advent of the synthetic drug era along with its ubiquitous
advertisements in recent years, giving the general public the impression
that there is a drug for everything (aches and pains, moods, aging, obesity,
sexual inadequacies, lassitude, weak muscles, slowness, hyperactivity,
you name it). Now there is ample evidence that Americans have taken these
pharmaceutical baits with gusto. Just look at what we have been taking
recently – dietary supplements for every ill. As mentioned earlier,
these are not true supplements or tonics. They are simply drugs, except
from natural sources, which don’t invigorate or restore your health.
At best, they may relieve whatever you have, though temporarily. On the
other hand, traditional tonics, like true dietary supplements (e.g., vitamins
and minerals) strengthen, restore, and maintain health. They are not normally
used to treat a specific disease (unless it’s a deficiency disease)
but to supply the body with missing nutrients (conventional or otherwise)
and to restore body balance and hence health. Chinese tonics have been
safely used for thousands of years to do just that. They can be considered
true dietary supplements because, unlike typical Chinese medicines, they
are traditionally used on a relatively long-term basis to supplement one’s
diet (Issue 14, pp. 1-2).
Among the many Chinese tonic herbs used by the Chinese over the past several
millennia, you may not have heard of schisandra, astragalus, danggui (Chinese
angelica), but I am sure you have heard of ginseng. ‘Ginseng’
has now become almost a household word in America, despite the fact that
most people don’t know what ‘ginseng’ is. Among the
2 major types of ginseng, American (Panax quinquefolius) and Asian (Panax
ginseng), I favor American ginseng. Even though both ginsengs are tonics,
being a yang person, I don’t need a yang tonic like Asian ginseng
to make me more yang. I need a yin tonic to balance my yang. Although
I do take American ginseng occasionally, it is not my favorite yin tonic.
My favorite yin tonic is lycium fruit (gou qi zi) which I consume on a
regular basis.
What is a yin or yang person? In Chinese medicine, a person is healthy
when his/her yin and yang are in balance. Yin is shade, night, cold, the
weak, and the inactive, etc., while yang is sunlight, day, heat, the strong,
and the active. The 2 are interconnected and both are needed to form the
whole. We tend to be either a yin or a yang person. A yin person often
is prone to cold hands and feet, a pale complexion, lack of energy, and
loose stool, etc. In contrast, a yang person tends to be hot, with a ruddy
complexion, full of energy, and often constipated. When one’s yin
and yang are out of balance, one will become ill. Often, certain foods
and tonics with yin or yang properties are consumed to restore this balance.
I am a typical yang person, having most of the above yang attributes and
then some. I am full of energy, requiring no stimulants, natural or synthetic.
I drink tea and coffee, not because they give me ‘energy,’
but because they are part of my acquired daily habit. At times, when I
don’t have access to decent coffee or tea while traveling, , I simply
go without them, which hasn’t affected my work. Since childhood,
I have never been able to sit still nor to move slowly or with grace,
though I have improved with age. I got expelled from elementary school
and then, again, high school; from the former because I disturbed other
children by not sitting still and from the latter because I flunked more
than 3 subjects that I found boring at the time (including recitation,
Chinese history, and singing). My wife calls me a jackrabbit.
Lycium fruit (gouqizi ) is the ripe red berry of Lycium barbarum L. or
Lycium chinense Mill, plants that belong to the tomato family (Solanaceae).
The plants are also known as wolfberry, Chinese matrimony vine, and gou
qi. They are both deciduous shrubs, naturalized in the United States,
with L. barbarum up to 1 m and L. chinense reaching 2-3 m high. Both plants
serve as source of lycium fruit which, after drying, is wrinkly and still
soft to the touch, with a texture similar to that of a well-dried raisin.
It also tastes sweet as raisin, but less so. The fruit from L. barbarum
is also called ningxia gouqi as it is produced mainly in northern China,
especially Ningxia Province. The fruit from L. chinense is called gouqi
and is produced throughout China. Gouqi from L. barbarum is larger and
is generally considered of better quality. Most of the lycium fruit imported
into the United States is this type. During the drying process, lycium
fruit is sometimes treated with burning sulfur to preserve its color and
to retard microbial growth. Hence, if you are allergic to sulfites present
in dried fruits and usually refrain from eating those, you should be careful
to ensure that the lycium you ingest has not been subjected to sulfite
treatment.
In addition to being a yin and blood tonic, lycium fruit is loaded with
nutrients, both conventional (vitamins especially ß-carotene; minerals,
amino acids, proteins, etc.) and not-so-conventional (immunopotentiating
and antioxidative polysaccharides; betaine, taurine, etc.).
Lycium fruit was first described around A.D. 200. Traditionally regarded
as sweet tasting and neutral, liver- and kidney-nourishing, replenishing
vital essence (yi jing), and vision improving, it is one of the most commonly
used Chinese yin tonics. Besides being used as a general yin tonic, it
is traditionally also used in treating general weakness and deficient
energy (xu lao jing kui), aching back and knee, tinnitus (ringing in the
ear), dizziness, diabetes, blurred vision, cough, and nocturnal emission
(wet dreams). In recent years, due to its immunomodulating, antioxidant,
and other effects (especially of its polysaccharides), lycium fruit extracts
are also used in China to alleviate the damaging effects of chemotherapy
and radiotherapy in cancer treatment. The scientific rationale of many
of its traditional uses has been substantiated by modern human and animal
studies, especially its anti-aging (antioxidant, hypolipemic, memory-improving,
etc.), immunopotentiating, and liver-protectant effects.1-3
Lycium fruit has been used for millennia by the Chinese people for improving
and maintaining general health. We use it frequently in cooking along
with Chinese yam (shanyao). The leaves are eaten as a vegetable. My grandmother
used to make a soup with them along with pig’s liver. The adults
ate it to improve their vision while we children ate the lycium leaves
and liver because they tasted good. Now I use lycium fruit or products
made with it for different reasons. It is nutritious in the conventional
sense and it is also just what I need for toning down my excessive yang
constitution. Before I started using it in the form of a commercial product,
I used to have constipation periodically, perhaps 3 or 4 times a year,
whether or not I ate lots of fruits and vegetables at the time, which
is totally contrary to modern nutritional principles. When that happened,
I often used a natural laxative like senna, cascara or aloe to relieve
it. It did go away but then always recurred a few months later. After
‘listening’ to my body for many years with this problem, I
was finally convinced that my problem was not due to a lack of fruits,
vegetables, or natural fibers in my diet, but rather to my basic excessive
yang constitution. And I also suspected that that could be rectified with
yin foods and/or tonics such as lycium fruit, American ginseng root, Asian
ginseng leaf (not root, which is a yang tonic), ligustrum fruit, cured
fo-ti, and rehmannia root/rhizome, among others. However, I didn’t
have the time or the patience to include any of these routinely in my
diet because a certain amount of special daily cooking or preparation
is required, not just when this happens, but on a continuous basis. Also,
I didn’t trust any of the commercial products on the market. So
when a lycium product I formulated for a client began to be available,
I was more than happy to take it on a regular basis. It has been almost
6 years now that I have been taking this supplement, and I have not had
a single episode of constipation during all this time (Issue 11, p. 3).
You may call this coincidence. But it certainly would be some coincidence!
A problem that one has all one’s life suddenly disappears when one
happens to take a lycium fruit product known for toning down one’s
excessive yang and yet not attributable to this? Possible, but highly
unlikely. As a scientist, I have been very skeptical about things like
this and I am always keeping my eyes open to potential exaggeration in
these matters as well as an open mind. After many years of observation
with an eye towards traditional health practices and another towards modern
scientific evidence, I firmly believe that the cause of constipation is
not simply due to lack of bulk or fibers in our diet. A major factor lies
in our individual constitution which requires a diet that is not one-size-fits-all.
Some people have no problem with constipation whether or not they eat
“five servings of fruits and vegetables” daily, while others
have this problem no matter how faithfully they adhere to the modern diet
recommended by experts in the conventional nutrition field. In order to
rectify it, they have to do something extra, usually resorting to laxatives,
which can become a habit. If you have this problem, here is what I recommend.
It certainly would be better than acquiring a laxative habit. If it doesn’t
work for you, you haven’t lost anything.
If you suspect you may have a yang constitution, with a tendency to constipation
as one of its characteristics and you don’t want to continue to
take laxatives anymore, why not start incorporating yin tonics or yin
foods in your regular or daily diet? Besides lycium fruit and the common
ones mentioned above (American ginseng root, Asian ginseng leaf, etc.),
other yin tonics/foods include Chinese asparagus root tuber (tian men
dong), mung bean, bean sprouts, and tofu (bean curd), all readily available
nowadays in Chinese food stores or major supermarkets with ethnic food
sections. Although all these are also used as medicines, they are all
true tonic foods with a long safe history of use. For convenience, you
may want to take lycium fruit and the ginseng products (not Asian ginseng
root) that are available already packaged as dietary supplements. If you
want to use fo-ti products, be sure they are made from cured fo-ti. Unless
you know your non-Chinese source is reputable and knowledgeable, you may
have a better chance of getting a genuine cured fo-ti product in a Chinese
herb shop than anywhere else. The reason you don’t want a product
made from raw fo-ti (e.g., by American manufacturers who don’t know
the difference between cured and raw fo-ti)(Issue 3, p.3; Issue 7, p.2)
is that raw fo-ti is a laxative; and it is also rather toxic. If you use
raw fo-ti, you may as well stick with your usual laxatives, which then
defeats the purpose of restoring your yin/yang balance with non-laxative
yin tonics to relieve constipation.
(1) M. Zhang et al., “A Review of the Anti-aging and Liver-protectant
Effects of Lycium Fruit,” Shizhen Guoyi Guoyao, 11(4): 373-375(2000);
(2) F. Wang and Y.Q. Zhang, “Recent Status of Pharmacologic Research
in Anti-aging Chinese Medicines,” Shizhen Guoyi Guoyao, 13(4): 236-237(2002);
(3) S.C. Qiu et al., “The Effect of Lycium Fruit on the Immune Function
of White Mice,” Shizhen Guoyi Guoyao, 10(8): 568-569(1999); Leung,
A.Y., and S. Foster, Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in
Food, Drugs and Cosmetics, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1995, pp. 358-361
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