Herb

One remarkable phenomenon I observed in the student project was there were quite a few on herbs.

Most of my friends know very well that I have very little objection to traditional Chinese medicine. More often than not, when my patient ask if I agree to their trying of some herbs, I would ask to have a look on the original prescription before putting up a green light - just to make sure there's nothing harmful.

Nonetheless, I am most against studying Chinese medicine with advanced technology but shaky research methods.

For example, what good is setting up all those cell lines to test the cytotoxic or anti-cancer effects of some herbs - if appropriate controls (e.g. the effect of the solvent) are not included ?

More so, if the results turn out to be negative, the explanation is the herb exerts some cytotoxic effects that could not be detected by the current technology.

(Such as effects mediated via aether ?)

And, of course, if you are brave enough to point out the flaw in their design, you would be labelled as paying no respect to traditional Chinese culture.

橘越淮而枳.

I'd better keep my mouth shut.

PS. It must be a coincidence that almost all prescriptions of Chinese medicine that come to me are written by students of Zhang Xu (張旭). My friend KM loves to quote that "a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind". I'm sure handwriting is no inferior in reflecting the brain.