LCC Broadcast News Room

We hit the streets of London to find out if people use or have taken herbal medicine as an alternative to modern pharmaceuticals.

10 out of the 40 Londoners surveyed opted for herbal alternatives to cure their ailments.

25% of the people we spoke to are happy to take medicinal herbs but there are calls to put tighter regulations on them following concern over their safety. If this were to happen we would be seeing a lot less herbs on our shelves and Chinese herbal medicines would be hit the hardest with many of their products being banned.

Last month a Chinese herbalist admitted selling dangerous pills which destroyed the health of a London woman. The Old Bailey heard how a remedy containing aristolochia, a Chinese herb that should only have been given under prescription, was sold as a remedy for a skin complaint.

In 2001, the Department of Health declared it would put Chinese herbalists under the control of a new regulatory body; yet nine years later, nothing has been done. As a result anyone can set up a Chinese herbal medicine shop, of which there are an estimated 6,000 in the UK without any professional regulation or oversight into what they're doing.

A European Directive is coming into force next year which will mean stricter regulations on herbal medicines and will effect both herbalists who provide the medicines and people who rely on them.

If the regulations come into force we may see a radical decline in the number of herbal products available and many people will have to rely on buying online which may be harder to monitor. The MHRA admits there there is 'no entirely reliable way of telling whether a traditional Chinese medicine is safe at present' because 'standards of safety, quality and product information' in Britain are so erratic.

The British Herbal Medicine Association says the statutory regulation of herbal medicines is everyone's business.

The group Sense About Science only promote evidence based medicines

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