Nine Chinese medicine sampling ultra seventy percent containing pesticide residues

According to an investigation report issued by the environmental protection organization on the 24th, more than 70% of the nine major Chinese medicine brands, including Tong Ren Tang, Yunnan Baiyao, and Huqing Yutang, were spotted and contained various pesticide residues. The cultivation process of Chinese herbal medicines currently relies heavily on the use of a large number of pesticides. The environmental protection organization calls for the government to implement the pesticide reduction policy, strengthen the management of pesticide use in the planting process, and increase the policies and financial support for ecological agriculture to promote ecological agriculture. development of.

“Chinese herbal medicines have been trusted by Chinese people who have respected nature and tradition for thousands of years, but this survey's findings undoubtedly hurt the original trust,” said Wang Wei, director of the Greenpeace Food and Agriculture Project. “In the process of agricultural planting Extensive use of pesticides has made the chemical agriculture model extended from fruits and vegetables to Chinese herbal medicines that are supposed to cure people. This is very worrying."

Greenpeace purchased 65 commonly used Chinese herbal medicines in nine cities including Beijing, Kunming, Hangzhou, Tianjin, and Hong Kong from July 2012 to April 2013. Samples include Panax Notoginseng, Honeysuckle, Poria, Angelica, Atractylodes, etc. Involving nine companies including Tong Ren Tang, Yunnan Baiyao, Hu Qing Yu Yu Tang, Tian Liao, Jiu Zhi Tang, Tasly, Cai Zhilin, Hong Ji Tang and Zhang Zhongjing, and then sent to a qualified independent third party laboratory for pesticide residues. Testing.

Test results showed that as many as 48 out of 65 samples contained pesticide residues, which accounted for 70% of all samples. Thirty-two samples contained three or more pesticide residues. Among them, more than 25 kinds of pesticide residues were found on Tong Ren Tang, Sanan Huai and Sanqi Powder of Te'an, and Zhang Zhongjing, Yunnan Baiyao, and Gongju of Tong Ren Tang. Of the 26 samples of all nine brands, six pesticides such as phorate and carbofuran were banned from use on Chinese herbal medicines. Compared with the European Union's pesticide residue residue standard, thiophanate-methyl detected in Tongrentang Sanqi Flower exceeded 500 times, and Yunnan Baiyao Honeysuckle also exceeded 100 times.

At the same time, Greenpeace found through on-the-spot visits to the planting base of Pingyi Honeysuckle in Shandong Province, Zhongningyu Planting Base in Ningxia, and the Sanhe Planting Base in Wenshan, Yunnan Province. The prevention and control of pests and diseases in the process of planting Chinese medicinal herbs relied heavily on the use of chemical pesticides. Farmers often rely on experience. Or pesticide shop recommended drugs, the lack of professional guidance and supervision from the government and enterprises. For example, Tongrentang, Yunnan Baiyao, Caizhilin and many other large-scale Chinese medicine brands have no standard for pesticide residue in the process of product acquisition, and internal inspections of pesticide residues will not be conducted within the company, resulting in easy access to pesticide-rich Chinese herbal medicines. Into the circulation.

“The problem of overuse of pesticides exposed in the field of Chinese medicine cultivation is only the tip of the iceberg that has emerged from China’s chemical agriculture model. Over time, it will lead to irreversible food safety and even ecological and environmental crisis,” Wang Xi said. “Only the government We are determined to implement a strict pesticide reduction policy and guide the transformation of chemical agriculture into ecological agriculture so that we can fundamentally solve the emerging food safety problems."

Greenpeace called on the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant government departments to implement the pesticide reduction policy, strengthen the guidance and supervision of the use of pesticides, and increase the policy and financial support for ecological agriculture. At the same time, they called on all major Chinese medicine companies to strengthen supply chain management, establish and publicize pesticide use reduction mechanisms, clean the cultivation environment of Chinese herbs, and ensure product safety to protect consumer health. (Original title [Tongrentang Yunnanbaiyao and other pesticide residues]

Supplementary reading: Chinese herbal medicine is contaminated by pesticides is a historical lesson

The Changbai Mountain Ginseng, which has repeatedly been detected with heavy metal content and excessive pesticide residues, is one of the lessons that history has left us.

Twenty to thirty years ago, to eliminate the pine caterpillars on the Changbai Mountains, the government had organized planes to sow highly toxic pesticides such as 666 in forests. Because it is difficult to degrade, it has been detected from time to time in ginseng in Changbai Mountain. For this purpose, Heilongjiang Province opened up new production areas and cultivated pollution-free and low-residue ginseng. However, the pollution of ginseng in Jilin and Liaoning has not been solved.

Lack of research on cultivation techniques leads to pesticide abuse

The two major problems in planting have become a national issue that has plagued the development of Chinese herbal medicines. On the one hand, due to the mixture of Chinese herbal medicines, drug farmers did not recognize them at the time of introduction, resulting in the gradual deterioration of varieties and quality of medicinal materials due to intermixing; on the other hand, the varieties were heavily replanted. With continuous farming methods, pests and diseases are cross-infected and land is degraded.

As agricultural technology is focused on the research of several major crops and the diversity of medicinal herbs, the researchers of each variety are scarce and it is difficult to obtain effective results. Compared with basic agriculture, the cultivation technology of medicinal materials is far behind.

In the case of sarsas found in medicinal herbs such as Astragalus membranaceus, Angelica sinensis and Codonopsis pilosula, many researchers have conducted extensive research. However, for its R&D products, the practicality is very weak. Farmers can only use pesticides with high toxicity and high residue.

The use of non-standard pesticides is also attributed to failure of the agro-technical guidance system. In a large number of rural areas in China, the agricultural technology station has become a business enterprise that only sells fertilizer and does not instruct.

The lack of pharmacopoeial standards makes pesticide residue testing irregularly accessible

In the 2005 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, only seven or eight kinds of medicinal materials were required to be tested at the time, and many only examined ash and leachables. Even in the newly published Chinese Pharmacopoeia in 2010, there were not many national standards for pesticide residues.

Because the scientific research on the principle of medicinal materials is generally backward, the research on the effective content of Chinese herbal medicines has not been able to keep up with the pace of industrial development. Taking the acetylenes in Codonopsis pilosula and ferulic acid in Angelica sinensis as an example, it is still difficult to solve the problem of what is effective among various content ratios.

For example, in April 2013, Chinese chrysanthemum was pointed out that the bactericide carbendazim was exceeded. In a related survey, media reporters found that chrysanthemum test items lacked standards or were dispersed in various standard documents such as food safety standards, geographical indication product standards, and substitute tea standards, and the regulations were different. For example, in the main producing areas such as Tongxiang in Zhejiang Province and Quzhou in Anhui Province, Chrysanthemum has been applied as a geographical indication product and national recommendation standards have been formulated, such as “Geographic Signage Products Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum” and “Geographical Signage Products”. Tongxiang has clearly defined six indicators such as arsenic, lead, copper, dimethoate, dichlorvos, and sulfur dioxide, but it does not provide for the detection of carbendazim. From 2011 to 2012, the quality supervision department of Anhui Province carried out multi-project inspections on all the chrysanthemum products in the province (Weiju, Huangshan Gongju, etc.), and there was no provision for the detection of carbendazim. Zhang Ruichang, head of the food department of Shengzhou City Quality Supervision Bureau, told reporters that carbendazim is not a mandatory inspection item for dried chrysanthemums.

In November 2012, the reporter also issued the “National Food Safety Standard for Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides in Foods”, which was implemented on March 1 this year. None of the pesticides, including carbendazim, was used to target dried chrysanthemum residues. Only in teas, the limit for carbendazim is 5 mg/kg.

Lack of supervision on the processing flow and market circulation of Chinese herbal medicines

The double failure of the processing flow and market circulation supervision has exacerbated the safety crisis of medicinal materials.

Taking traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces as an example, in the market for medicinal herbs, the lack of qualifications of many people who process pieces of decoction has long been an indisputable fact. Due to the lack of experience, some pieces of processing pieces of herbs, the medicinal materials or foam or immersion, on the one hand make the active ingredients be diluted or even leached; on the other hand, some pieces of the mold that are in circulation after excessive circulation can also be processed by one household. Re-enter the market.

The failure of supervision in the professional market has exacerbated the deterioration of the situation. "The herbal medicine specialty market is a fraudulent professional household." This has become almost an open secret. When the price of Bupleurum rose sharply in 2003, many drug dealers began to pick out similar products and shoddy.

In the 17 professional wholesale markets across the country, adulteration and reprocessing are very serious. Due to the combination of Duhuo and Oudanggui, the Angelica of Qixian County went through a long journey, and after being sliced ​​in Zhangzhou, Anhui Province, it was actually lower than the price of the origin. The variety of licorice, because of the fish head, directly affect the quality.

Sometimes the raw material is 25 yuan of angelica, and the price often becomes 17 or 8 yuan after being cut into pieces. Such adulteration is almost impossible to discern.

Another kind of behavior is even worse. In Shandong and Henan honeysuckle, magnesium sulfate and other aggravating powders are widely used and can be increased five to six times. The marijuana pack with the young boy's grass can even change from 10kg to 40kg after heavier. In the purchase of proprietary Chinese medicines, the purchasers of pharmaceutical companies have to take kickbacks, and the act of shoddy stuffing and miscellaneous goods is mostly blind.