Modern Views: Looking at Bai Shao vs.

Chi
Shao in the Lab
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Our company´s exploration of whether to keep the skin on Bai Shao or to remove it like most
other herb companies dates back almost 25 years, when Nuherbs´ President Pat Kwan founded
one of the first Sino-US joint ventures. She noticed that Japanese herbal companies were buying
Bai Shao only if it had its skin intact. She initially assumed they were going to further process it
in Japan. One day, her curiosity led her to ask the Japanese buyers why they wanted the Bai Shao
with its skin on. They told her most of the active ingredients were destroyed when the skin was
removed, which is why the Japanese Pharmacopeia explicitly states that Bai Shao must have its
skin intact. This left a deep impression on her. However, she lacked the technical tools to
confirm it at the time so she continued to import Bai Shao with the skin removed because of
market demands.

In 2006, Pat Kwan realized one of her life-long dreams of being able to offer a full line of
Chinese laboratory-tested herbs by launching Nuherbs® Lab-Tested Herbs. Two of the quality
indices tested, when a method is offered by the Chinese Pharmacopeia, are identity and potency.
With all tests completed, our quality control reported that Bai Shao with its skin removed
repeatedly failed to meet pharmacopeia standards. This sparked her memory of the conversation
from almost 25 years ago and she immediately asked for Bai Shao to be tested with its skin.
Results returned with the Bai Shao meeting pharmacopeia standards. This confirmed knowledge,
combined with other research, directed Nuherbs® to choose Bai Shao with its skin for its
Nuherbs Lab Tested herbs line.

As soon as the first shipment of HPBS arrived, our Master Herbalist rejected it because
organoleptically (visual and tactile identification) and macroscopically, he thought it was Chi
Shao. At once, our quality control team sprung into action by sending samples to the herbal
experts, the Chinese State Testing Agency, and an independent US laboratory to confirm its
identity. The shocking test results confirmed that it was, indeed, Paeonia lactiflora. However,
the close identity standards between Paeonia Lactiflora and Paeonia veitchii (Chi Shao) spurred
our quality team to take another step further by sending the questionable sample to Authen-
Technologies to conclusively identify the species via DNA testing. The DNA results also
confirmed the herb in question was undeniably Paeonia lactiflora.