Drugmaker revises description of aconitum products

Yunnan Baiyao Group, a traditional Chinese medicine maker based in Yunnan province, said on its website that it had revised the introductions of some of its products as required by the China Food and Drug Administration.

According to a circular the administration issued in November, for medicine products containing aconitum, manufacturers must label the ingredient on the products' instruction for use and put warning notices on the package.

Aconitum is one of the 28 poisonous ingredients that the administration said must be labeled.

Yunnan Baiyao Group admitted on Feb 6, 2013, that its products contain aconitum after the Hong Kong Department of Health said on Feb 5 that it ordered a licensed wholesaler to recall five Yunnan Baiyao products because they were found to contain "undeclared aconitum alkaloids".

The products that the department ordered to recall were capsules, powder, plaster, aerosol and tincture made by Yunnan Baiyao.

The company had been omitting the ingredient description of such products on its instructions for use or describing the ingredients as "nationally classified", as the national government classified the medicine's formulation and the way it is processed in 1956.

Following the recall order by the Hong Kong Health Department, the China Food and Drug Administration issued a statement on Feb 6, 2013, saying that it had asked the company to revise the instructions of its products. Yet it added on Feb 7 that the company's products are safe, as the toxicity of aconitum is greatly reduced during the process of making the medicine.