Bad to the bone: China vendors pass off painted ox bones as those of tigers, make bogus illness cure claims
- Bones from big cats once a popular treatment for range of ailments
- China banned use in medicine, ‘tiger wine’, other products in 1993
Two vendors in China have been caught selling ox bones disguised as those from a tiger, and claiming they are a cure for rheumatism and other ailments.
A video clip showing the pair with the items at a market in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region went viral online in December last year.
In the video, the men claim the bones can cure leg pain and backache as well as rheumatism. Each two-centimetre-long piece of bone was priced at 100 yuan (US$14).
When the authorities confronted the vendors, they admitted the bones they were selling were from oxen and had been painted with yellow and black stripes so they could pass them off as tiger bones.
The news came as a shock for many, especially as China had banned the use of tiger bones in medicine, and the sale of any products containing them, in 1993.
Tiger bones were traditionally believed to be a precious traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, ingredient that could cure a range of diseases and conditions, including inflammation. They were also thought to strengthen human bone.