Herbal Hope or Hazard? : Medicine: Some in the Southland are joining millions worldwide who take Chinese remedies. But the products are not tested as drugs, and officials warn that some pose risks.

At the first sign of a cold, actress Beulah Quo doesn’t turn to aspirin or Contac. She reaches for a packet of Chinese herbal medicine in her freezer. She boils the dozen dried herbs and bark in the packet--prescribed by her herbalist father 30 years ago--in four cups of water, simmering it until the liquid is reduced to a mere cupful.

Then, she drinks the bitter brown brew before going to bed, and says that in the morning she invariably feels better. Be it a common cold or a nasty flu, Quo vouches for the Old World remedy.

“It works for me,” says the nation’s best-known Asian American actress, who has been in movies and TV shows since the 1950s. “Western medication just suppresses symptoms, but Chinese medicine goes to the root of the problem.”

Quo, a Silver Lake resident, is among hundreds of millions around the world who believe in the enduring value of Chinese medicine, which has been as much a philosophy of life as a way of healing for thousands of years.

But because herbal medications are not regulated as drugs in this country and haven’t gone through stringent testing required of prescription drugs, federal and state officials warn that some may pose health problems for consumers. A recent federal study found heavy metals in some popular products, primarily those manufactured in China and sold over the counter in grocery and health food stores and available by mail order.

An important thing to remember, say longtime practitioners, is that herbal medicine must be prescribed after an examination by a competent herbalist. Because no two people are alike, every ailment is unique to the individual, and so, too, must be the prescription to treat the condition.

Throughout the United States, the popularity of Chinese medicine is increasing--especially among non-Asians. Disappointed with high-tech and often impersonal Western medicine, people seeking cures or relief for everything from insomnia to infertility, and asthma to arthritis, search out practitioners of Eastern healing.

“People come to us when they’ve tried everything else and nothing has worked,” said Starrie Ming, an herbalist and UCLA-trained dentist, whose ancestors were Ming Dynasty court doctors more than 400 years ago. She says 98% of her Chinese medicine practice in Pacific Palisades involves white clients.

T. B. Chew, who at 83 may be the oldest herbalist-chiropractor in Los Angeles, says he has to keep working because he has so many elderly patients who want his herbs, and new Latino and African American patients who come to his South-Central clinic through word of mouth. Scrapbooks in his waiting room offer testimonials from hundreds of people he has helped. Quo is Chew’s biggest fan.

“Chinese herbs are natural and effective--they don’t poison the system,” said Chew, a third-generation herbalist whose apothecary contains a vast array of herbs in a medicine cabinet. He said herbs are especially effective in treating arthritis, asthma, chronic cough, indigestion, insomnia and nervousness.

With four millennia of history, Chinese medicine is based on the premise that the universe is composed of opposing natural forces--yin and yang. To keep healthy, one must maintain a balance between these two essential life forces. Yin is negative, feminine, dark and cool; yang is positive, masculine, light and warm.

When the yin and yang balance is out of whack, practitioners of Chinese medicine believe, a person falls victim to illness. Thus, people predisposed to being “hot” attain the necessary heat balance by taking herbs to cool the system. Quo’s system, by contrast, tends to be “cold,” and she takes herbs to warm her, said the actress, who most recently appeared in “Bad Girls” as a Chinese medicine woman.

Aside from the traditional herbs, prepackaged remedies making exaggerated claims or containing heavy metals or products derived from endangered species are more problematic. Over the years, these products have brought the scrutiny of state and federal agencies.

Some products make false claims of curing cancer, memory loss, ulcers and infertility. A list of questionable products compiled by state and federal agencies includes Perfect Manhood Pill, which claims to combat graying hair; Quanlong Emperor Sperm Essence, which promises to increase male sexual desire, and a special formula to avert “untimely senility.”

Three years ago, a team of scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., began analyzing more than 50 patented Chinese medicines to check for tiger bone and rhinoceros horn. Lab tests turned up no detectable amounts of the endangered species listed on the labels, but they did reveal the presence of heavy metals, such as mercury, arsenic and lead, in some of the commonly sold preparations.

The agency in June plans to launch an educational campaign targeting California’s large Asian communities with a twin goal of warning about potentially dangerous products and seeking to reduce the demand for items using endangered species.

“Our message is ‘Buyer beware,’ ” said Edgard O. Espinoza, a senior Fish and Wildlife scientist at the Oregon lab, who headed the study.

Federal officials say that despite international and U.S. laws on endangered species, products containing protected animals continue to be brought into the country for personal and commercial purposes.

Of the 1.8 million medicinal items seized by U.S. officials from 1984 to 1992, about 30% listed ingredients made from endangered species, according to Fish and Wildlife officials.

Last September, a Fish and Wildlife inspector at Los Angeles International Airport intercepted a complete Siberian tiger skeleton, bear organs and rhinoceros horn pills worth more than $800,000 from Chang Hao An, 39, a businessman from China. He claimed that he had planned to give them to friends and business associates as gifts. On April 4, the smuggler was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.

Using animal parts in medicine is based on the belief that weakening human organs could be revitalized by consuming the corresponding parts of animals that are known for their strength. The tigers and the rhinoceros have long been favorites.

Today, with fewer than 10,000 tigers and 6,000 rhinoceroses remaining in the world, these and other endangered species are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Endangered Species Act is the main U.S. enforcement tool.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is targeting Los Angeles because it is among the top cities for seizing products made from endangered species, officials said.

“We just can’t look at everything,” said Michael Osborn, chief wildlife inspector for Southern California.

And inevitably, most ends up in stores, said special agent George Phocas, who intercepted the Siberian tiger carcass.

In 1988 and 1992, the Monterey Park-based 100-member Oriental Herbal Assn. helped the state health department develop a list of the 40 most dangerous medicines and their toxic contents.

Some of the common toxic ingredients include cinnabar, a mercury compound; realgar, which contains arsenic, and borneol, a chemical that in small amounts can cause convulsions, liver and kidney damage and stomach bleeding.

Experts believe contamination--from water, soil, vats, pesticides--occurs during processing because of inadequate quality control in the factories where the products are made. Tests have shown that sometimes harmful chemicals are used as ingredients.

A product that was being advertised as laryngitis pills contained 30% borax and 10% toad secretions, while Po Ying Tan Baby Protector contained 20% camphor, an ingredient that causes convulsions, a state health department analysis found.

Over the years there have been several reported deaths caused by ingesting herbal medications in California. A San Francisco woman died some years ago after taking a preparation that was supposed to prevent miscarriage but that included highly toxic secretions of toad skin.

More recently, in 1993, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta studied one pain reliever--Jin Bu Huan--after the product caused severe respiratory problems in children in Denver and was linked to hepatitis among adults in Los Angeles.

The CDC recommends that “both physicians and the public should report any adverse effects from products they usually get from health food stores,” said Sherri Wainwright, an epidemiologist at the center. She said there is no single surveillance system set up except through a Food and Drug Administration phone line, MEDWATCH [800-332-1088], and poison control centers.

California laws prohibit the sale of drugs that are unsafe, improperly labeled and/or contain ingredients that can only be sold by a licensed pharmacist with a valid prescription. But a shortage of inspectors and resources is a major obstacle, said Prosy dela Cruz, regional administrator for the food and drug branch of the state Department of Health Services.

Dela Cruz believes Chinese medicine should be brought into the mainstream, as is the case in Germany. She readily acknowledges that medical lobbies would fight the proposal, but she believes it may be the only way to protect consumers. That way, be they herbs or over-the-counter pills, products would be subjected to standard tests for safety and effectiveness before they could be sold.

“Chinese medicine is not going to go away--people have used it for thousands of years,” Dela Cruz said. The important thing, she said, is to protect consumers from incompetent practitioners and bad medicine.