Behind herb's name change

IT IS UNIMAGINABLE TO MANY THAT DELIVERY OF interest could be behind the change of name of a medicinal herb. But a disciplinary inspection official in Central China's Hunan province has accused the former director of the China Food and Drug Administration of manipulating the change of Lonicera japonica, or Japanese Honeysuckle, a medicinal herb growing in South China provinces to another name. He claims that the name change has caused heavy economic losses to millions of herb growers, and firmly pledged that corruption was involved. This accuser, using his real name, said online that an enterprise from East China's Shandong province benefited the most from the change of name in 2005 while the former CFDA director at the time was from that province.

An expert from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission said on Wednesday that the latter medicinal herb, although quite similar to Lonicera japonica, is not the same and that both were used as the same type of medicinal herb was a mistake. However, an expert from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine argued that both are almost the same with only a minor difference in the content of luteoloside, which he believes does not make a difference to the plant.

Ordinary people can hardly reach their own conclusions even if both parties continue to argue since it is such a complicated issue that requires professional knowledge to understand.