TCM practitioner and rheumatism expert Zhou Naiyu always turned
to tiger bone for her prescriptions in the 1980s. But the 1993 ban
on trading in tiger products has led to this ingredient
disappearing from TCM prescriptions.
But many doctors, like Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine
Hospital's Zhou, continue to swear by its potency in strengthening
bones and tendons and believe it has no substitutes.
Nevertheless, scientists have been trying to sniff out
alternatives for tiger bone ever since the ban was imposed. The
long list of candidates include dog bone and ginger. But the bone
of a type of plateau rat has emerged as the most promising one to
date.
Scientists from the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology have
said the bone structure and content of this rat are very much
similar to tiger bone and even superior in some aspects.
The rat, called Sailong, is found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Sailong is seen as a pest in the plateau as it feeds on the roots
of grass and breeds quickly. It has long been blamed for the
depletion of the grasslands.
More than 20 years ago, Professor Zhang Baochen from the
institute began to research the Sailong. He was amazed to find
during his dissection of the rats that no cases of arthritis or
other bone diseases had ever been identified in this species
although the rats live in areas of low temperatures and high
humidity.
Zhang said he realized that this rat's unique ability to fight
rheumatism could hold hope for human beings afflicted with this
disease.
Visits to nearby families bolstered Zhang's hypothesis. He found
that locals used Sailong bones to treat the rheumatism women
developed after delivery. Also, he found, since they often ate the
rats they caught, they had very strong teeth.
The ban on tiger bone led Zhang to develop rat bone as a
substitute for tiger bone.
Currently, Sailong bone wine is sold in drug stores for the same
purpose that was once served by tiger bone wine to strengthen the
bones.
A new drug combination of proteins extracts from Sailong bone
and some rare herbs has shown promising results in treating
rheumatism and bone diseases in clinical trials at nine prestigious
hospitals in China, with no side effects being reported.
However, despite the efforts at finding substitutes, the
glamorous image of tiger bone cherished by the people is hard to
erase.
Recently, nature conservationists in China have been expressing
worry over a resurgence of the trade in tiger parts.
Businessmen who stand to profit from such trade are putting
increasing pressure on the Chinese government to overturn the ban,
according to a new report from TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring
network. It says that such a move will allow domestic trade in
captive-bred tiger parts for use in traditional medicine, to
resume.
Conservationists have said the 1993 ban was essential to prevent
the extinction of tigers by curbing demand in what was historically
the world's largest consumer in tiger parts.
Undercover surveys conducted by TRAFFIC late last year found
little tiger bone available in China. Less than 3 percent of 663
medicine shops and dealers claimed to stock it, and most retailers
were aware that tigers were protected and trade in tiger parts was
illegal.
However, some illegal trade in tiger parts does exist. The
report documented 17 instances of tiger bone wine for sale on
Chinese auction websites, with one seller offering a lot of 5,000
bottles.
Last year, China Youth Daily reported that a wine
company in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was
quietly producing tiger bone wine calling it "Bone Strengthening
Wine".
Of particular not is the fact that the number of
captive-breeding tigers has increased rapidly and now stands at
4,000, according to Xu Hongfa, China Wildlife Trade Program
Coordinator.
He said that original purpose of large-scale captive breeding
was to put the tigers back into the wild, but it turned out to be
an impossible task owing to their lack of hunting skills and
appropriate habitats. So now these breeding centers are pushing for
legalizing trade in tiger products from these facilities to
compensate for the expenditure on the breeding.
Conservationists are strongly opposed to any lifting of the ban.
"A legal market for tiger parts from captive-breeding centers could
give a stimulus to the poachers to kill tigers in the wild as it is
hard to distinguish which ones come from those in the wild and
which from the breeding centers," said Xu.
So far there are only about 50 wild tigers in survival in China,
distributed mainly in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, southwest China's Yunnan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region.
Both conservationists and TCM practitioners agree that
developing substitutes for parts from endangered species is of
critical importance to both wildlife conservation and sustainable
development of Chinese medicine.
The substitutes can come from non-endangered sources and also be
synthetic alternatives. Synthetic bezoar and musk have already
shown themselves to be nearly as effective as their natural
counterparts. Trials on substitutes for two other critically
endangered species, rhinoceros horns and saiga horns, are also
being carried out.
However, TCM practitioners remain somewhat wary of substitutes
as they believe the curative effect of an important ingredient has
been tested through the centuries.
"Any substitution should be based on conditions of similar or
same effects and no toxicity," said Shao Aijuan, a research fellow
with the Institute of Materia Medica of the China Academy of
Chinese Medical Science.
She quoted the case of a bad substitute. Mutong (Caulis
Hocquariac manshuriensis), a rare medicinal herb, was once
substituted by another ingredient called guanmutong which was
cheaper and more easily available. In 2003, guanmutong contained in
Long Dan Xie Gan Wan, a heat clearing Chinese medicine, was
reported abroad to cause uremia. The use of guanmutong has since
been banned.
According to Shao, her institute is currently establishing
evaluation standards for TCM substitutes.
She said substitutes should not be such that they endanger other
plants and animals in the wild.
(China Daily April 5, 2007)
