Chinese herb as effective as Tamiflu for the H1N1 flu
If you’ve got the flu, don’t ask the doctor for a Tamiflu prescription – a Chinese herb can work just as well. It’s as effective as the drug in tackling the H1N1 virus, one of the main flu viruses in circulation right now.
The herbal treatment – Ma Xing Shi Gan-Yin Qiao San, which is made up of 12 herbs – brought down a high temperature as effectively as Tamiflu (oseltamivir) when it was tested on 410 flu patients.
In fact, it was marginally better – the herbal treatment, given in liquid form, lowered a high temperature within 16 hours, four hours quicker than Tamiflu. And only 9 per cent of those given the herbal mix needed antibiotics, compared to 16 per cent of those given Tamiflu.
(Source: Annals of Internal Medicine, 2011; 155: 217-25).