One of China's major Fufang Luhui Jiaonang producers, Shanghai Fosun Linxi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, a holding company of the Shanghai Stock-listed Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd is suspected of manufacturing and exporting the problem TCM.

However, the company said they are still investigating where Fufang Luhui Jiaonang in question came from.

"We never export this product to overseas markets, if it is our product, it have been exported illegally," Liu Jinqiang, technical manager with the company said.

But he also claimed that the dangerous mercury levels reported by the U.K's medicines regulatory body's report were not accurate.

"It should be mercury sulfide," he explained, saying that the Fufang Luhui Jiaonang produced by their company contained mercury sulfide, but not mercury.

He also added that drugs or bulk materials that contain mercury sulfide were prohibited from being exported.

Many TCMs contain heavy metals which have some side effects. However, when tests on the TCM show a very high efficacy, sometimes the side effects are ignored, a member of China's State Pharmacopeia Committee of China said in a report by a Shanghai newspaper, adding that measures to control the quantity of heavy metals contained in TCMs were being carried out nevertheless.

TCM experts also say that, despite the long history of success of the medicine in China and its Asian neighbors, a lack of familiarity in distant countries like the UK may be exacerbating the problems.

At present, most of China's TCM exports are dietary supplements or health foods, which means such herbal remedies doesn't go through the same strict examinations that chemical drugs do.

The awkward position of TCM in overseas markets is made wore by the lack of an internationally recognized standard for the medical discipline. Such problems are also limiting the export potential for the drugs at present.

In 2004 Fufang Luhui Jiaonang was recalled from 35 outlets across the U.K. after its mercury levels were found to be 11% In April 2005, another batch of the same TCM was seized following an unannounced inspection of a TCM wholesaler in the U.K.

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