Tried and tested cure from nature's pharmacy

The Chinese have used medicinal herbs for thousands of years and still use them today.

Although they may appear more mysterious than the chemical drugs of conventional medicine, herbs are effective in treating many diseases.

Amazingly, more than 1,600 medicinal herbs have been found in Hong Kong.

Sometimes the whole plant is used, sometimes only the flower or leaf, bark or root.

Depending on the herb and the illness, they may be eaten, drunk, inhaled, or applied externally to the body.

Flower tea is sold in many herbal tea shops and is made of several species.

These include: the cotton tree, a red-flowered tree which can reach a height of 25 metres; honeysuckle, a climbing plant whose flowers fade from yellow to white; and frangipani, a cultivated shrub whose flowers may be red or white.