Amid the slugs, athletes are warned on Chinese medicine

BEIJING (Reuters) - The oldest and biggest Chinese medicine store in Beijing is stocked with traditional ingredients like deer's penis, dried seahorses, fungi, and ginseng.

At one end there is now a counter with signs warning athletes over centuries-old stimulants.

With the majority of Chinese people taking traditional medicine to both keep them healthy and to cure illnesses, the government embarked on a campaign ahead of the Olympics to ensure there was no doubt over which drugs were off limits to athletes.

Kong Yan Ping, vice-manager of a 339-year-old Tongrentang store near Tiananmen Square, said about 100 of the 1,200 natural ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine were stimulants.

From May 1 all vendors of these medicines were required to isolate any that could contravene the International Olympic Committee's list of prohibited drugs and put up warning notices.

"Athletes should be careful with the drugs that include stimulants," read the blue signs above and on the counter.

Chinese Olympic officials have advised athletes not to take traditional remedies during the Aug 8-24 Games when the IOC will conduct 4,500 doping tests, up 25 percent on the Athens Games.

Several athletes have previously been banned for illegal elements found in innocuous over-the-counter medicine.

Chinese star basketball player, Yao Ming, is a strong believer in traditional medicine that dates back 2,000 years.

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He returned to China in April to seek advice from traditional Chinese medicine experts to help the recovery of an injured foot.

"There is no reason to dismiss (traditional Chinese medicine)," he told reporters. "It's been used in our country for thousands of years. I don't think it's short on science."

Dr. David Baron, from the U.S.'s Temple University School of Medicine who worked at a doping control officer at previous Olympics, said this was no longer an issue just affecting Chinese athletes with traditional medicine getting more popular overseas.

"Athletes other than just Chinese take traditional Chinese medicine ... the advice given to the athletes is to assume everything you put in your body could test positive," he said.

Kong, whose store is one of a chain owned by Beijing TongRenTang Co Ltd, said traditional Chinese medicine aimed to make the whole body run well, not just focus on one area, and treated everyone uniquely with no single quick fix.

The 60 doctors at her store write different prescriptions for each patient which are mixed by hand.

Boiling seahorses or deer penis in water and drinking the soup can help kidneys function better while sea slugs boiled or eaten whole can help the blood. Swallows nests benefit lungs.

"Lots of Chinese people put powdered medicine into their wine as some medicines are absorbed better into the body if in wine," she told Reuters during a tour of the store.

"Most Chinese people still use traditional medicine which has benefited people throughout its 2,000 year history."

(Additional reporting by the Beijing Newsroom and Lucy Hornsby; editing by Miles Evans)