Are there any minerals or animal products in Chinese herbal medicine?
Strictly speaking, Chinese herbal medicine should be called Chinese materia medica, as indeed a small amount of minerals and animal parts are used in Chinese “herbal” medicine. According to Medicines Act (1968), only botanic sourced “herbs” are exempt from licensing and can be legally used without prescription in the UK, therefore in our clinic, we do not use any minerals or animal parts, except 2-3 kinds of seashells. British government has been working on the reform of Medicines Act (1968) since 2002. In the foreseeable future, those effective and non-toxic minerals and animal products (non-endangered species) will be legalized for clinical use by statutorily registered TCM practitioners.
