Traditional Chinese formulations are a great inspiration, but Hans & Elzbieta Brand are concerned about the quality of some of the products coming out of China
In the first half of the 5th century Mongolia was a world power. Attila the Hun controlled large parts of Asia and Eastern/Central Europe and was often referred to as “the scourge of God”. He was even making forays into Germany and France. Mongolia has a surface area of around 1.5 million
sq km, approximately six times larger than the UK, but with only three million inhabitants. That’s all that is left of the gigantic, cruel empire of Attila and Dzjengis Khan (1167-1227).
China protected itself from the Mongolian invaders by means of the Great Wall of China (construction began around 300 BC) and succeeded in keeping the murdering Mongols out of its country. Quite a convenient way to protect yourself, but it took an incredible amount of work, cost a lot of money and involved many casualties. Having said that, Chinese technology and engineering was at least 1000 years ahead of Europe while the US didn’t exist at all. And then it suddenly stopped.
In the old days China was a silent superpower, barely accessible until relatively recently. In the 1980s and 1990s the Chinese government recognised that it had to open up the country to survive and develop. Things had changed. In previous times technology and traditional pharmaceutical treatments were practised in China at a very high level given the analytical possibilities of the time. Dioscorea villosa (wild yam) is known in the Chinese Pharmacopeia as shan yao. Wild yam is used orally as a natural alternative for hormone replacement therapy and osteoporosis. It also increases libido in both males and females and is used for breast enlargement. Applied topically wild yam is used for suppressing hot flushes and night sweating. Its most significant constituent is diosgenin, which is found in the root and is used as a precursor for commercial chemical synthesis of human steroidal hormones.
One formula is known in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia as Liuwei Dihuang Wan and it gives excellent results in the treatment of hot flushes and night sweating. There is also a formulation that makes use of Schisandra chinensis (in Chinese Wu Wèi Zi, literally meaning five flavour berry). It should be noted that Schisandra chinensis increases the body’s ability to cope with internal and external stress factors and normalises the functions of the body, helping to maintain a stable internal environment inside the body known as homeostasis.
An important characteristic is that it’s safe, possessing few known undesirable side effects, if any. It should be noted however that there is no clinical validation on the efficacy of the formulation relative to its claims, as would be required for certification of a medical device. This formulation is about 3000 years old, when humans in Western Europe were still out hunting and gathering nuts and berries.
For the average organic chemist Dioscorea villosa is real candy; the botanical family covers approximately 500 species, from which Dioscorea villosa and Trillium erectum, native to China, have the highest concentration of diosgenin. Trillium erectum is used commercially in The Netherlands to produce progesterone, one of the reproductive hormones. Diosgenin is a so-called sapogenin (the aglycons are the saponins) and is characterised by the presence of a spiroketal side-chain (spirostan). Saponins are water soluble while sapogenins are insoluble in water.
Sapogenins form soap-like solutions and have surface active properties, hence their haemolytic properties. Upon measurement of the RBC value, figures are found above 60; worse than cetrimonium chloride/bromide. Intravenous application of sapogenins results in serious toxic effects; oral or topical application are essentially safe, except in the case of transdermal transport. Elimination of saponins and sapogenins from botanical extracts is easy, and then absence of toxicity of botanical extracts upon oral and dermal application is valid for most botanical extracts, but not all. As an example soapwort [INCI: Saponaria officinalis], an ornamental plant, was used as early as the stone age and is also mentioned in the old library of Alexandria. It was rediscovered in the 16th and 17th centuries for cleansing purposes. Soapwort was in use until the late 1800s until fatty acid soaps became widely available commercially.
There are also very toxic saponins and sapogenins. Alpha-solanine (obtained from potatoes, tomatoes, egg plant etc) occurs in high concentration in the unripe fruits and rhizomes and disappears during ripening. Intoxication caused by the consumption of large amounts of potatoes used to be common in the 19th century when boiled potatoes were the only food available, as made famous by Vincent van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters portraying extreme Dutch poverty.
Digitoxin and digoxin, obtained from foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), are very toxic cardiac glycosides that also enable detection of DNA in foreign samples. Foxglove is strictly forbidden in cosmetics.
Products described in the traditional Chinese Pharmacopoeia are often useful for modern applications and inspire development of 21st century cosmetic products. But there are also many materials described that have no benefit and are used purely as status symbols: rhino horn, tiger bone, elephant tusk, bear gall and other crazy products that are hugely expensive and highly damaging to animals and the environment. At the moment there is insufficient respect for nature. It really is all about the money.
Part of the problem is apparent from the number of recalls of Chinese consumer products as summoned by the EU authorities and laid down in the RAPEX reports. A staggering 52% of all EU recalls in 2007 were for Chinese products, Italy coming next with 10% but with around the same product volume as China. There are clearly some serious problems with some Chinese imports and with some European customers importing from China. The misery is simply stuffed under the carpet.
We’ve seen all sorts of things in Chinese C&T products: diethylene glycol in toothpaste, overdosed preservatives (out of EU requirements), use of off-grade ingredients, contamination with Aspergillus niger, Salmonella species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the presence of chloramphenicol in animal-based ingredients etc, and don’t get us started on herbal preparations.
There are of course some very reliable producers, just not enough. If the target is purely to earn as much money as possible in the shortest possible time it’s difficult for the situation to improve.