Order of Physicians raises its voice in Lebanon against herbal goods (dietary supplements, weight loss products, etc.) whose ads invade Internet and TV. Some unscrupulous investors take advantage of the popularity of traditional medicine, that we spoke about through arab Internet users behavior. That is why, in March 2010, a new legislation in Lebanon restricted to pharmacists alone the manufacturing, the importation, the storage and the marketing of herbal medicines and banned all kind of advertising. Even if it is possible to control the pharmaceutical market, Hayeon Lee from NowLebanon noticed the difficulty to control media…

If 1.400 Zein El-Atat products suspected to contain harmful chemicals were grabbed by the Consumer Protection Department, lebanese authorities were slow to issue official warnings, unlike KSA or UAE (i.e. this warning letter from Abu Dhabi Health Authority, December, 30 2010). At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Health in Lebanon issued a warning against manufacturers of herbal and nutritional supplements, such as Zein al-Atat and Amanacare whose products would be dangerous to public health. In agreement with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the authorities have withdrawn from sale 38 suspected products.

These dangerous & media quacks or apothecaries  totally discredit the use of traditional medicines resulting from a long practice. In the contrary, traditional and alternative medicine is most of time the primary care for the greater number.

Urgent measures must be undertaken in order to protect medicinal plants in our region from the ongoing destruction of their natural habitat as well as to the overharvesting of wild species and detrimental climatic and environmental changes. In addition, urgent measures have to be undertaken to preserve the traditional knowledge about medicinal plants.

Bashar Saad, Hassan Azaizeh & Omar Said, “Tradition and Perspectives of Arab Herbal Medicine: A Review”, Oxford University Press, 2005.

According to the World Health Organization, the worldwide market for traditional medicines represents an estimated 16 billion U.S. dollars. It is not surprising to see some dangerous products as Zein al-Atat or Amanacare ones on the market. The battle of the herbal medicine will be media …