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Standard Formulas and strict regulations are the Key to the Development of TCM

Many principals of the hospitals of Chinese medicine hold the opinion that the biggest problem that hinders the development of TCM is that proven recipes are hard to put into standardized production. Since a lot of proven recipes of TCM are the fruits of thousands of years’ experience they are hard to produce in large quantities because of no standardized formulas, leading to the loss of many traditional medicines today.

A piece of research has shown that urban residents trust TCM because of its outstanding healing effects and its relatively freedom from side effects. However, rural residents choose TCM for low price, good healing effects and its ability to cure symptoms at the root.

Likewise people who are willing to choose Western medicine hold the idea that TCM is inconvenient to take and is too bitter to swallow, and this is especially disliked by young people.

Driven by business interests, the quality of traditional Chinese medicine is gradually declining, which is mainly due to four factors: first, ineffective protection of wild resources makes the medicinal materials scarce; second, the pursuit for profit makes people blind in the cultivation of medicinal materials, some of which are planted in the wrong places and their medicinal properties have changed greatly; third, the quality inspection of the medicinal materials are not strict enough and some materials are even adulterated with branches and barks by dishonest dealers; fourth, owing to the scarcity of the systematic and integrated criteria and standards of processing herbal medicine, some producers usually use inferior materials and turn out substandard products, which directly affects the quality and curative effect of Chinese herbal medicine.

These factors make people doubtful about TCM resulting in patients being unwilling to choose the doctors of TCM when they are sick.

Amid such a climate the future of TCM is being determined. To revive TCM will take time though efforts are underway to restore its integrity.

By  Feng Hui