Anhui Bozhou Forms Probe Team After Toxic Aconite Sold as Health Product; Market Annual Sales Hit 56 Billion

On July 26, 2026, a financial investigation program reported that consumers had flagged numerous online merchants promoting sliced aconite root boiled in water for health benefits, while freely selling raw aconite. Raw aconite is a toxic traditional Chinese medicinal material, subject to strict national rules on its production and use; improper use can cause poisoning or death, and its purchase, sale, and processing are tightly controlled. According to the report, raw aconite was priced at 40 to 80 yuan per jin (500 grams) depending on the degree of processing. Bozhou in Anhui subsequently set up an investigation team.

In Jiangyou, Sichuan, aconite is a crop; Jiangyou is a traditional authentic production area and has received national geographical indication protection and the title of national trusted brand for traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces. Once it enters the professional medicinal materials market, aconite becomes a "cold and niche" category with low trading volume and scattered demand. The Bozhou medicinal materials market is one of the world's largest professional markets for such goods, with annual sales growing from about 30 billion yuan a decade ago to 56 billion yuan in 2023. The market hosts more than 2,000 pharmaceutical companies, over 8,000 stalls, and nearly 20,000 tenant traders, with more than 2,800 types of medicinal materials listed daily and an average daily footfall of about 60,000 people. Its annual transaction value accounts for nearly one-third of the national total for similar markets.

Around 2023, Chinese medicinal materials experienced a sharp price fluctuation. Sour jujube seed prices rose from about 200 yuan per kilogram around 2020 to nearly 1,000 yuan per kilogram in 2023, then quickly fell to 520 yuan per kilogram by July 2024. During the same period, more than 60 medicinal materials (including different specifications of the same variety) saw annual price increases exceeding 100%. On July 24, 2024, the Bozhou Medicinal Materials Association issued a proposal against price gouging, noting that abnormal price fluctuations in some varieties had seriously exceeded historical levels. By 2026, prices had cooled markedly. According to Yaotong Net monitoring, in the fifth issue of April 2026, the Bozhou medicinal materials price index stood at 1,293.28 points, down 0.17% from the previous period, with the 12 sub-indices showing four rises, four falls, and four unchanged.

According to the report, some sellers had no fixed stalls and solicited business under the guise of "medicinal materials purchasing agents" or "wholesale market errand runners," delivering goods directly to buyers, with transactions completed off the stall. In the sales pitches shown, the end user became a home health pot: slicing, boiling, and drinking. In the past, the end users of toxic medicinal materials were pharmacies, hospitals, or licensed decoction-piece enterprises, where users were trained; in the report, the end-use method had changed.