Team:HSiTAIWAN/Background

　

  • Background

    • Introduction
    • Chinese Medicine
    • Challenges
    • Solution
    • Application
    • 　　 　　

    Background

    　　

    Introduction

    Chinese herb medicine has been used worldwide, particularly in Asia for thousands of year. Many safety concerns of toxins and metal contamination in Chinese medicine use have been raised.

    In our project, we aim at playing a role of bridging synthetic biology science and social need by devoting our effect in analysis of the scope of Chinese medicine in Taiwan, identification the problems or issues in use, regulation and screening of Chinese herb medicine. Our goal is to design an eco-friendly and safe biosensor product, which is low-cost, effective and can be used by any one to screen toxins in Chinese medicine.

    Figure 1. The Project Framework of Herb Taster

    　　

    Chinese Medicine

    In Asia, Chinese herb medicine plays an important role in Chinese food culture. Not only serving flavor aide, Chinese herb medicine has been used for health promotion, disease prevention, symptom relief, and illness treatment in Asia for thousands of years. In the past decade, use of Chinese herb as alternative medicine in copying with diseases has become more popular in western countries.

    Figure 1a Chinese herb medicine in Chinese food culture

    According to the social epidemiology analysis on use of Chinese medicine (in our Human Practice)(Table 1), we found that over 5% percent of Taiwanese people using Chinese medicine as the major medical resources for illness treatment. In 2013, over 10% of the Taiwan population had a least one outpatient visits of Chinese medicine service in the past month before interview survey date.

    In our analysis, we also found evidence of potential problems in using Chinese medicine in Taiwan (Table 2). There were only neear one third of the Taiwanese population knowing that our government imposes GMP regulation on the manufacturing Chinese medicine and that use of Chinese medicine requires a doctor’s precription. However, there was 6.8% of them reporting the experience of purchase Chinese medicine without the prescription. Inadequate knowledge and inappropriate use of Chinese medicince implies that our population are exposed to potential risks of health hazards.

    However, potential risk of using Chinese medicine is not only limit to people’s misuse of Chinese herb medicine. The major safety concerns about Chinese medicine is toxin contamination. There have studies and media reporting problem of toxin contamination in Chinese herb medicine.

    Heavy metals and mycotoxins are the two main types of toxins contamination in Chinese medicine. These heavy metals and mycotoxins are toxic and thus harmful to human and animal’s health.

    Figure 2. Potential Contamination in Chinese Herb Medicine

    In Asian medical and food culture, Chinese herb medicine is commonly used, not only as medicine for disease treatment but also as nutrient supplements for health improvement. Due to the pattern of long-term use , safety concerns on toxins in Chinese medicine is taken into consideration seriously by the experts and government in Taiwan, probably more aggressively than the other countries in regulating food safety.

    Learning from our field work of Human Practice, we understood issues in securing the safety of Chinese medicine. We interviewed and visited two Taiwan government divisions of Ministry of Health and Welfare: the department of Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy and Food and Drug Safety Administration. We knew in advance that on October 1, 2016 our government would amend the regulation and inaugurated new policy on Chinese medicine safety, including raising the standard of toxin limit and expanding the screening scope to all Chinese medicine. Our government has endeavored to secure the safety of Chinese medicine use, however, facing difficulties and challenges.

    　　

    Challenges

    Adulteration of heavy metal and toxin during manufacturing process has always been a concern to Chinese Medicine consumers. Although there are a few methods (for example: ICP-MS) to detect these harmful substances, the procedures often turn out to be expensive and inconvenient to most people. If the danger in herbs continues to cast shadows among people, it is only a matter of time that people stop eating Chinese Medicine.

    　　

    Solution

    Thus, we decided to make a cheap and user-friendly bio-kit that can detect the heavy metal and toxin in Chinese Medicine. Different types of E. coli will be cultured in our bio-kit. When these bacteria detect certain types of heavy metal or toxin, they will express fluorescence. By examining the intensity of fluorescence, we can analyze the amount of specific substance inside the testing subject. Also, we hope to create a biosafety mechanism to prevent of E. coli from spreading into the wilds. What’s more, our mechanism will be based on herbs that can suppress the growth of bacteria, but are absolutely harmless to humans.

    　　

    Application

    In the future, we view our bio-kit in use of detecting heavy metal or toxin in other daily products. For instance, detecting lead in makeup and cosmetic purchases. Moreover, we are looking forward to popularize the concept of consuming Chinese Medicine. We hope to preserve this important Chinese culture by clarifying its negative connotation.