Experts are warning the people from Scotland not to turn to a traditional Chinese spice to treat swine flu. Star anise – a key ingredient in Chinese cuisine’s five-spice powder is used to make the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which is the world’s front-line defense against H1N1 strain of the virus.

It has been used by traditional healers to treat respiratory conditions and digestion.

But as the World Health Organization warns that “all of humanity is under threat” from swine flu, Chinese medicine practitioners warned Scots that star anise could make fevers worse.

Wei Xiong Chen, who runs the Hui Chun Clinic in Glasgow, said too much star anise could do more harm than good and raise the body’s temperature.

He said: “We would use cooling herbs to cool the head. Star anise would not cool the body – it would make it worse and might increase your temperature.

“Some of the Chinese community come here to get medicine for prevention, and my family members take star anise as well for precaution. It works well for the normal flu.

“But you need to see patients individually because each person is different. I use a different formula of 10 to 15 different herbs for each person to cover different parts of the body.

“There’s no harm in using star anise but it’s not a miracle cure. Western medicine and herbalists use one formula for everything. Our approach is to treat the individual.”

Mr Chen added that the price from suppliers for star anise increased hugely after the SARS outbreak in 2003 or bird flu in 2005, as did the price of honeysuckle flower, which is now two or three times higher.

The government announced it would be buying extra doses of Tamiflu to take the total from 33 million to more than 50 million to cover a likely pandemic.

Emma Farrant, secretary and council member of the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine, said star anise warms the stomach and spleen, so can help problems of cold.

But, she warned: “The public see the herb and think, ‘I must get some of that’ and think it’s going to help. But it would be very rare to use one herb for a person. “Just going and buying star anise is not going to do any good. Don’t self-prescribe. A herb is only safe when prescribed by a competent practitioner.

“Star anise is a warm herb, so it would potentially just make things worse. To use it in cooking is fine, but I would not recommend people go out buying vast quantities of it.”

Roche, who make Tamiflu, launched the drug in North America in 1999/2000 starting with shikimic acid, obtained either from fermentation or extracted from the eight-pointed star anise seedpods. The plants do particularly well in the hot and humid regions of China’s southwestern provinces: Guizhou, Guanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan. The eight-pointed star anise seedpods are harvested and dried before Roche’s secret extraction process – it takes 30kg of pods to produce 1kg of shikimic acid.

The entire 10-step manufacturing process takes 6-8 months, according to Roche’s website. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said health care advice remained the same, to stay at home if you are ill, cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, maintaining good basic hygiene, and cleaning hard surfaces.

She added: “The Scottish Government has already procured a stockpile of antiviral drugs sufficient to treat the Scottish population at a clinical attack rate of 50 per cent. “All territorial NHS Boards have stocks of anti-virals in place, and further supplies will be provided as required. As a result of the decision – which we are party to – to increase stocks across the UK, our stocks will increase significantly beyond that. ”

By: Scotsman newspaper team