Alert issued on Chinese medicinal herb

June 18, 2011

About 150 patrons of Chinese medicine practitioner Yiu Shut-kwai on Fuk Wa Street in Sham Shui Po have been asked to stop taking Chinese medicinal herb Rhizoma Atractylodis, as it has been found to be contaminated.
 
The Department of Health is helping the practitioner contact clients to whom he prescribed the ingredient after it learned that it made one of his patients ill. The 50-year-old woman had prepared a mixture with it to treat an illness.
 
She developed dry mouth and blurred vision – symptoms suggestive of anticholinergic poisoning – about half an hour after taking the mixture on June 16. She was treated at United Christian Hospital the next day and discharged.
 
The department began tracing the source of the poisoning and took samples of herbs from the practitioner’s clinic, and found samples of the herb Rhizoma Atractylodis to be contaminated with tropane alkaloids.
 
As the practitioner’s shop was clean and tidy, and he had not done any further processing of the herbs at his clinic, they traced the batch of the contaminated herb to the Guangzhou Qingping Chinese Herbs Market, where he had purchased it directly on May 23.
 
The department notified the Mainland drug authorities for follow-up, and has alerted traders and Chinese medicine practitioners to stop using the same batch of Rhizoma Atractylodis from the Guangzhou market.
 
After the department’s investigation into how the contamination occurred, it will refer the incident to the Department of Justice for advice.
 
Any one who has the contaminated herb from the practitioner should surrender it to the Department of Health office, 16/F, Two Landmark East in Kwun Tong, Kowloon. Any one who took the herb and does not feel well should seek advice from healthcare professionals as soon as possible, as anticholinergic poisoning can be serious and even fatal.