Alternative found to bear bile remedy

A HERBAL remedy devised by Hong Kong medical practitioners can help cut the demand for bear gall bladders and reduce the need for bear farms, a new report claims.

But other experts warned that for many bile-hungry patients there could be no substitute for the real thing.

The report, which was made public yesterday, said a combination of herbs including peony root, holly, passiflora, lobelia and sage could create an effective alternative prescription for the ailments which bear bile has traditionally treated.

Lo Yan-wo, president of the Association of Chinese Medicine and Philosophy, which compiled the report, said he hoped patients would accept the remedy.

''Usually patients do not ask specifically for bear gall bladder. It is the doctors who suggest it, and say that rare medicines are the most precious,'' he said. ''But herbs can cure tumours and other ailments as well as, or better than, bear bile.'' However, Ng Cheuk-lam of the Society of Practitioners of Chinese Herbal Medicine said he doubted the small number of people prepared to pay high prices for bear bile and gall bladders would be convinced by the herbal alternative.

''Plants cannot be a real substitute for an animal product,'' he said.