Seven market stores in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, have been closed down on suspicion of selling fake and substandard medicinal herbs, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Harbin is known for its vendors of ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine, but is also home to numerous unscrupulous traders, according to a report by China Central Television.
According to CCTV, some vendors at the city's South Pole wholesale market glue strips of ginseng together to make longer — seemingly older — pieces that can be sold at a higher price, the report claimed.
Ginseng that would normally sell for 75 yuan (US$12.10) can be sold for 600 yuan after being "elongated," the report said.
In other cases, sellers were shown to have either bought their quality certificates or made fake ones.
The practice has been ongoing for years, the report claimed.
At the Three Trees market, an undercover CCTV reporter allegedly found evidence of vendors using sulfur to give their ginger a whiter appearance.
The use of sulfur to "beautify" medicinal herbs is banned in China, the report said.
After the CCTV show aired on Sunday, officials from Harbin's food and quality watchdog raided the markets and closed down the seven stores.
They also confiscated 187 batches of "suspect" products, Xinhua reported.
