Group warns: Banned health tonic still being sold in Manila

A herbal tonic labelled as an Indonesian product that can treat a range of health problems is being sold by vendors in Manila despite the lack of approval from food and drugs regulators, an environmental watchdog warned.

EcoWaste Coalition on Thursday said a check with vendors at the Victory Lacson Underpass in Quiapo showed that some of them were selling the Sehat Badan herbal drink “in open defiance of the ban’’ against the product.

Sold at P270 to P300 per box, the herbal drink is said to be manufactured in Surabaya, Indonesia, and is claimed as a treatment for allergies, asthma, impotence, rheumatism, toothache, ulcer and urinary stones, according to Thony Dizon, EcoWaste Coordinator.

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) issued health warnings in January and July 2014 about Sehat Badan as these products did not pass the FDA standard for safety and quality. “Public health is therefore at stake,” the group added.

The FDA, it said, noted that while it was being marketed as a herbal drink, it was found to contain ibuprofen, paracetamol, and diclofenac sodium, which act as painkillers.

The agency then ordered law enforcement officials to seize Sehat Badan products being sold locally.

EcoWaste urged the operators of the Quiapo underpass mall to order tenants to stop selling Sehat Badan products.

Dizon noted that these stores also sell other products that are already banned, such as insecticides with cypermethrin, skin-whitening cosmetics containing mercury, and “slimming” coffee and juices with amphetamine and sibutramine. Nathaniel R. Melican