Makers of traditional Chinese medicine containing expensive lingzhi spores may have made claims about their products that may not be true, Consumer Council members said yesterday.

Lingzhi spores are believed by some to have healing properties, including boosting one's immune system and possibly curing cancers. The spores come from polypore mushroom seeds.

But the council found that some samples of the lingzhi spores contained much lower rates of wall breakage and weighed less than what the manufacturers had claimed. And some samples claiming to be "pure" lingzhi contained other ingredients.

Consumers are not protected, as there are no laws governing the products, said Ambrose Ho, chairman of the council's Publicity and Community Relations Committee.

Spore breakage refers to when the outer layer of the seeds break, releasing the lingzhi and making it easily digestible. Manufacturers promote the health benefits of lingzhi spore products based on the breakage rate of the seeds. But the medical sector is divided over whether spore breakage enhances the products' effectiveness.

The tablets cost between HK$4.9 and HK$13 each.

Hong Kong Baptist University'ssenior lecturer of Chinese medicine, Huang Xianzhang, agreed that more ingredients inside the spores would be absorbed by the body if the spores break.

But Zhang Yanbo, an assistant professor of Chinese medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said that some academics believed that the spore contents become oxidized during the breaking process, hindering their medicinal value.

But regardless of whether the breakage was effective, the council found that its test results presented a drastically different picture from the products' claims.

The council collected 16 samples of lingzhi products claiming that all the seeds break, or have a "breakage rate of 99 precent".

But of those samples, only two lived up to their claims. All the seeds broke in one of the products, and 99 percent broke in another.

For example, the rate of breakage in Opal Health Ganoderma Sporo-Pollen was between just 10 and 20 percent.

And Royal Medic Broken Ganoderma Spore achieved the lowest breakage rate: 5 percent.

Ho said it was difficult for the government to regulate the product claims, as there is no unified standard for measuring breakage rates.

"Customers shouldn't fully trust the product claims," Ho said. "They should get expert opinions before buying the products."

The council also detected the presence of other ingredients in six samples that claimed to be "pure". But the ingredients were not disclosed in the product labels.

Hyphae and filling materials were found in Royal Medic Broken Ganoderma Spore.

Despite the council's test, all the products' manufacturers defended their product claims, saying they are accurate. They said the disparity between the claims and the council's report resulted from different testing methods.

Leslie Wong, marketing manager of Royal Medic Broken Ganoderma Spore, said the company reserved the right to take action against the council.

Wong said the product was proven to have a breakage rate of 99.8 percent by a laboratory in Guangdong Province accredited by the nation.

A spokesman for Vita Green, whose lingzhi spores had an 80 percent breakage rate in the council's report, said that tests conducted based on the nation's standard proved that its product's breakage rate was over 95 percent.

The spokesman said the company would need to seek legal advice before deciding its follow-up actions.

(HK Edition 01/16/2008 page1)