Today I'd like to start wrapping up this giant series by exploring one of the major fundamental factors of Chinese Medicine: Herbs.

Medicinal herbs account for about 80% of all TCM in terms of sales and we westerners typically associate TCM with harmless ginseng and the like rather than, say, poisonous human remains and endangered animal penises.

So, this might take a few parts to cover but I'll start with the first result in Wikipedia's List of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Monkshood Root

Monkshood, or 'Wolf's Bane', is a very toxic plant containing aconitine which can easily cause paralysis and death.

Waste not, want not, the Chinese say cheerily as they gobble this plant down in hopes of an effective painkiller. Of course, it's not limited to just being a painkiller. No, each and every chinese medicine can seemingly cure all the world's illnesses.

In the case of Monkshood, it is also said to work as a blood coagulent, an anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, tumour and wound healing.

Of course, the study I'm referring to is authored by a team of entirely Chinese people, and you'll know what that means if you've followed this series.

Though they make efforts to lower toxicity, overdosing is pretty common in an unregulated world of pseudo-medicine. I'd stay away.

Birthwort

If you're feeling brave, why not take it up a notch with birthwort?

This was actually briefly mentioned in an earlier post as a susbstance that is linked to the astonishingly increased number of cases of Urinary tract cancer and kidney failure in Taiwan, because it holds the chemical Aristolochic Acid or AA.

Recent reviews have proposed completely prohibiting this for medicinal use (finally) due to its high rate of death and low rate of actual benefit, whereas Monkshood is merely restricted.

If you want to go even more extreme by healing yourself with deadly poison you can use other popular TCM plants with higher concentrations of AA, including Guang Fang Ji and Guan Mu Tong

Camellia sinensis

Harmless enough... I think...a plant with leaves that are used in various Asian teas, but the main thing to frown at here is simply how much this plant apparently cures:

_{asthma, angina pectoris, periphehral vacular disease, coronory artery disease, diabetes type-2, anti-cancer, anti-microbial, antioxident, mental alertness, sleeplessness, calms spirit, clears vision, clears head, quenches thirst, clears heat, dispels summer heat, detox poison, aids in digestion, sober drunkenness, breaks down oils and fats, moves qi down, moves water down, evacuate bowels, treats dysentery, breaks down phlegm, subdues wind, strengthen teeth, epigastric pain, treats skin fungus, fights hunger, increases qi, longevity, 'and more'}

Wow it's amazing anybody actually dies in this day and age!

Chinese cucumber

Another cure-all that happens to also be deadly. This one:

...is believed to treat tumors, reduce fevers, swelling and coughing, abscesses, amenorrhea, jaundice, and polyuria.

But if you do it a little wrong, you cuan get yourself a high fever, seizures and DIE.

I'm gonna skip ahead a bit now on the list:

Ginger

Used since ancient times, surely Ginger is legit? Well, yes generally, but the problem here is that once again, it is often highly exaggerated in its application, from yet another anti-cancer medicine to detoxifyinig and regrowing hair or even helping with HIV and IBS. You name it.

One thing I found to have a total lack of evidence for is ginger tea for upset stomachs. Instead, peppermint has more reason to help out here.

True or not in each case, if something claims to be a wonder drug or wonder cure, it ain't.

Ginseng

Ginseng is super popular in Asia and the single most sold plant in all of TCM. Yet again, it is a cure-all, from cancer (sigh), longevity, asthma yadda yadda yadda.

What they don't tell you are the side effects:

dry mouth and lips, excitation, fidgeting, irritability, tremor, palpitations, blurred vision, headache, insomnia, increased body temperature, increased blood pressure, edema, decreased appetite, increased sexual desire, dizziness, itching, eczema, early morning diarrhea, bleeding, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, irritability, restlessness, urinary and bowel incontinence, fever, increased blood pressure, increased respiration, decreased sensitivity and reaction to light, decreased heart rate, cyanotic facial complexion, red face, seizures, convulsions, and delirium

Studies have found ginseng resulting in malformations in rat embryos and a potential risk of similar results in pregnant humans.

Most concerningly here is that since it's considered a food product, it needs not go through any medical regulation. So the typical rule of thumb applies even more here than usual: Stay away from TCM.

I could continue down the list alphabetically all day but I think you get the idea. Herbal medicine is either extremely dangerous, over-exaggerated or even if legitimately useful, under-regulated and thus, extremely dangerous.