Currently there are 4 billion people worldwide using natural medicines, organizers of the 2nd International Conference & Exposition on the Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine said. The huge number has pressed all governments to keep lifting restrictions on Chinese herbal medicine, which is ushering in a new opportunity for global development with climbing sales year by year.

Germany is the country consuming the most Chinese herbal medicines in west Europe, accounting for 70 percent EU market and with 58 percent Germans taking such medicines. Medicines made of licorice root, pangolin scales, rhizome of wind-weed and fuling (Poria coccus) as well as pills made of garlic, hawthorn and rutin have enjoyed an annual sale of 2.2 billion US dollars in EU countries.

Doctors of Chinese herbal medicine in Australia see at least 2.8 million visits each year, and herbal medicine import has increased four times since 1992.

Traditional medicine is also gaining legal status in the United States. In 1992 NIH set up a research office on alternative medicine to evaluate traditional medicines including Chinese herbs. The FDA no longer requires herbal medicines to be a "pure ingredient" but can be "safe, effective and controllable mixture", removing legal barriers for traditional Chinese medicine to enter American mainstream market.

By People's Daily Online