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SCMP Reporter

A RECORD haul of fake Chinese herbal medicine has been seized in raids on a well-known chain of shops, it was revealed yesterday.

  Six people, including a director, are on bail after 15,842 packets of counterfeit cordyceps were seized.

  Cordyceps, a plant which sells for up to $300 a tael, is used to cure coughs and aching joints. It is particularly popular in winter soups.

  The 1,628-kilogram haul could have been sold for $6.5 million. Customs officers believe the company has been selling the bogus remedy since opening two years ago.

  It was the first seizure of counterfeit cordyceps in Hong Kong. Part of the haul went on show yesterday at the Consumer Council.

  The bogus packets contained a cheaper plant from the labiatae family that had been doctored.

  Tests showed the fakes had been treated with salt water to increase the weight by up to 15 per cent.

  Consumer Council spokesman Dr Lo Chi-kin said: 'Labiatae is not harmful, but it's not a recognised Chinese medicine and has no particular nutritional value.

  'The seizure is both the first and a timely one as there is now, in the winter season, a great demand for nutritious foods.'   He said the conmen had dried and rolled the labiatae roots and covered them with turmeric, before cooking and blackening the stems to imitate the fungal part and gluing them on with cornflour paste.

  Customs and Excise assistant director Tsang Hing-kam said it was impossible to calculate how much the gang had netted overall.

   But the rip-offs probably generated five to 10 times as much profit as the genuine article.

  Mr Tsang refused to reveal the name of the chain as investigations are continuing, but said it was 'well established'.

  The six people were arrested in raids on seven shops in Western, Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay and a warehouse in Des Voeux Road West on November 28.

  Dr Lo said soup made with the rip-off cordyceps tasted very salty.

  The fakes are easy to tell because the labiatae come apart in water when the cornflour glue dissolves. The roots swell up and the yellow powder comes off.

  Mr Tsang said: 'We had been receiving complaints since February this year, but we speculate this racket had been operating since the chain opened a couple of years ago.

  'The plants were imported from China. Some were for sale in Hong Kong, but the majority were for export to other Southeast Asian countries, and, in particular, to Malaysia.' 



Raids net huge fake herbs haul