Watch out for pesticide residues in traditional Chinese medicine!

Traditional Chinese medicine, originally used for treatment and health care, is now in danger On June 24, Greenpeace, an international environmental protection organization, released a survey report in Beijing, which showed that more than 70% of the nine Chinese medicine brands, including Tongrentang, Yunnan Baiyao, and Huqingyutang, had multiple pesticide residues, many of which were still highly toxic pesticide residues strictly prohibited by the state for many years 70% of the samples contain pesticide residues It is understood that from July 2012 to April 2013, Greenpeace, an environmental protection organization, purchased 65 commonly used Chinese herbal medicines as samples in 9 cities including Beijing and Kunming, including the prices of Panax notoginseng, honeysuckle, wolfberry, angelica, Atractylodes macrocephala, etc., and the brand stores of Chinese herbal medicines involved include Tongrentang, Yunnan Baiyao, Huqingyutang, terana, Jiuzhitang , Tianshili, Caizhilin, hongjitang, Zhangzhongjing nine brand TCM stores Subsequently, environmental protection organizations sent these Chinese herbal medicines on sale to qualified independent third-party laboratories for pesticide residue detection The results showed that 48 of the 65 samples contained pesticide residues, accounting for 70% of the total samples Among them, 32 samples contain three or more pesticide residues, such as the price of Panax notoginseng and Panax notoginseng in Tongrentang (Beijing), tianana, and the price of Gongju in Zhangzhongjing pharmacy, Yunnan Baiyao and Tongrentang (Beijing), all of which have found more than 25 pesticide residues Among the 26 samples of all nine brands, six kinds of pesticides forbidden to be used in traditional Chinese medicine, such as phorate, carbofuran, methamidophos and methomyl, were also found "Due to the limited number of China's regulations on the maximum residue standard of various pesticides in Chinese herbal medicines, we compared it with the EU's maximum residue standard of pesticides," said Wang Jing, head of the Greenpeace project The results showed that: some samples exceeded the standard by tens or even hundreds of times, such as thiophanate methyl found in the price flowers of Tongrentang (Beijing) 37 The price of Yunnan Baiyao honeysuckle exceeded the standard by 500 times, and the price of Yunnan Baiyao honeysuckle exceeded the standard by more than 100 times Chemical agriculture model has been extended to the traditional Chinese medicine industry At the same time, the Greenpeace project team also conducted field visits to the price planting base of honeysuckle in Pingyi, Shandong Province, the price planting base of Lycium barbarum in Zhongning, Ningxia and the price planting base of Sanchi in Wenshan, Yunnan Province It was found that the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests in the process of planting traditional Chinese medicine, like the mode of chemical agriculture in China, depended heavily on the use of chemical pesticides: for example, most farmers relied on experience or Pesticide stores recommend drugs, lack of professional guidance and supervision from the government and enterprises; and at the back end of the production chain of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Tongrentang, Yunnan Baiyao, Caizhilin and other large-scale brand enterprises of traditional Chinese medicine in product acquisition, there is also no standard for pesticide residues, and there will be no relevant detection of pesticide residues within the enterprise, resulting in rich agricultural residues The traditional Chinese medicine is easy to enter the circulation link, until the consumer's mouth "Traditional Chinese medicine has been trusted by nature and traditional Chinese for thousands of years, and the results of this investigation undoubtedly hurt the original trust." Wang Jing believes that due to the large use of pesticides in the current agricultural planting process, this chemical agricultural model has been extended from fruits and vegetables to traditional Chinese medicine which should be used to cure diseases and save people "This is very worrying."