by Bob Flaws Recently, we announced that Blue Poppy Herbs' factory in China is the first that we know of to be certified U.S. FDA cGMP compliant by an independent standards certification company (NSF). This is a huge step forward in Blue Poppy's qua… more »

by Eric Brand GMP Laws and Herbal Pharmacies Herbal safety and GMP regulations seem to be hot topics lately. Recent changes to FDA cGMP law regarding the dispensing of dietary supplements technically cover many of our individual private practices… more »

by Honora Wolfe So today was the second day of a two part class on Social Network marketing sponsored by the Small Business Development Center of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. In my probably-very-boomerish attempts to stay up to date I attended bo… more »

by Bob Flaws Recently, several customers have called Blue Poppy to tell us that some of our medicinal identifications on our labels are wrong. For instance, we have Ci Ji Li instead of Bai Ji Li for Fructus Tribuli. However, this is not a mistake on… more »

by Eric Brand Chinese medicine has a long, fascinating history. There are nearly endless interesting topics to explore. Many readers are familiar with the foundational channel theory of the Nei Jing and the timeless dui yao herbal combinations seen… more »

March 20, 2009; Boulder, CO Blue Poppy Herbs’ Chinese manufacturing facility in Hunan Province has successfully completed a GMP audit by NSF International, an independent, non-profit product and facility compliance auditing company with offices w… more »

by Bob Flaws Back in the mid-1980s when the AIDS epidemic was just taking off, I wrote a book for a family member with AIDS titled Nine Ounces. This book (long out of print) consisted of nine or so chapters describing various ways that Chinese medici… more »

by Eric Brand Qingping Market in Guangzhou is one of China's largest herbal markets. The three largest wholesale herbal markets in China are located at Anguo in the North, Bozhou in the East, and Guangzhou in the South. Of these, Guangzhou is the o… more »

by Bob Flaws Within traditional Confucian society in China, there was a long-running debate over whether the practice of medicine was a so-called big or little Dao. A big Dao meant a path to self-cultivation, a spiritual practice if you will, a means… more »

by Eric Brand As I mentioned in a previous blog, the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been an important trading center for centuries. Although Guangzhou is not really a beautiful city, it is full of history and has been continually inhabited f… more »

by Bob Flaws In issue 5, 2008 of the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, there is a very interesting article by Wang Q. and Yao S. titled, "Molecular Basis for Cold-intolerant Yang-deficient Constitution of Traditional Chinese Medicine." Basically… more »

by Eric Brand Adverse Drug Reactions, or ADRs, are an extremely hot topic in medicine today. Without a doubt, most of us have noticed an increase in discussions on herb-drug interactions and increased attention towards identifying safety issues with… more »

by Honora Lee Wolfe Cyberspace is endless! You hear about one possible way to market on the internet and the next day a new one, and so forth. How to decide what to do or not do? I say pick one or two and leave the others alone, but people are out th… more »

by Bob Flaws While I was searching this afternoon for some statistics at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website, I came across a very arresting and disturbing map. It is a map that shows the growing percentage of obesity in the U.S. year by ye… more »

by Bob Flaws In Chinese medical journals, there is a genre of article that discusses “new” or “off-label” uses of famous old formulas. The titles of this genre of article typically contain the words “new uses” or “lifting the borders” along with the… more »

by Bob Flaws On pages 21-22 of issue #8, 2008 of Xin Zhong Yi (New Chinese Medicine), there is an article titled “Observations on the Relationship between Breast Cancer MRI Images & Chinese Medical Patterns” by Huang Yong et al. The authors of th… more »

by Eric Brand The Cantonese-speaking areas of Guangdong province and Hong Kong have arguably integrated herbal medicine into their diet and culture more than anywhere else in China. In modern Hong Kong, it is hard to walk more than a block or two wi… more »

by Honora Lee Wolfe   Over the weekend more bad news from banks, Wall Street, the job market, and overseas. Everyone is concerned and, surely, most of us are affected one way or another by what is happening around us in the macro-economy. Since the av… more »