JEDDAH, 4 July 2006 — With a huge community of Indonesians and other Asians living in the Kingdom we tend to see foreigners bringing with them their foods, spices, languages, habits, customs, dress and traditional medicine to Saudi Arabia.
Take a stroll through some of the busy shopping centers and supermarkets across Jeddah and it is definitely difficult to avoid seeing shops selling traditional Asian foods and medicines. But how safe are these medicines? According to some health experts, the so-called “herbal medicines” contain dangerous substances and can have an adverse effect on people’s health.
Abdullah Abdul Jaleel is in his late fifties and, like many men of his age, has been suffering pain in his knees. Abdul Jaleel’s driver, an Indonesian, knew about his employer’s interest in herbal medicine and so helped him shop for these medicine at an Indonesian store.
Abdul Jaleel took the medicine for a few days without consulting his doctor but did not see any improvement. “I thought the medicine needed some time to become effective,” said Abdul Jaleel.
A friend of Abdul Jaleel, also suffering from a similar knee problem, was about to take the same medicine.
But when he read a health warning from the Ministry of Health saying that some Indonesian shops were selling illegal and dangerous medicines and that people should not take herbal medicines without consulting health professionals, he refrained from taking these medicines.
According to Dr. Khaled Marghalani, MOH spokesman, the ministry has been in contact with many supermarkets and pharmacies to tackle the problem and stop the illegal distribution of harmful substances.
Jabir Al-Qahtani, director of the herbal products registration sector at the MOH, said that many of these products come in green and red plastic packs and although it is not mentioned on the packaging they contain paracetamol and phenylbutazone.
“These chemicals are harmful and must not be used for more than a week. The doses taken must not exceed 200mg to 600mg. The MOH really needs to try removing such products from Asian shops,” he added.
In spite of the health warning issued by the MOH, such illegal medicines continue to be sold in shops in the Al-Tahlia, Al-Rawdah and Al-Faisaliah districts at prices ranging from SR10 to SR20.
A salesman at an Indonesian shop told Arab News, “We have a lot of organic remedies and medicines made from natural herbs.” The fact that many of these medicines contain paracetamol can cause problems to people’s health. The World Health Organization says paracetamol is generally safe if taken in therapeutic doses, but can cause children to suffer liver-related illnesses.
Health experts say that phenylbutazone is used as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug to treat chronic pain, like arthritis.
Experts advise against its use saying it can cause, among many other things, gastrointestinal ulcers and damage to kidneys if over used.
In spite of the fact that the writing on the package of Indonesian medicine is written in Bahasa Indonesia and carrying no expiry dates, salesmen continue to peddle them without due care or attention to people’s health. Even though the MOH has issued warnings, shops continue to stock such medicines secretly.
Some stores refused to talk about the issue but one salesman told Arab News, “We are waiting for our distributor to bring more of it tonight, or on Monday.” An Indonesian maid told Arab News that Asian stores sell these medicines to foreigners but are scared of selling them to Saudis.
