bile - bears

[Shirleygreen]

I deleted something on here by mistake but before I did so I read that our urso was made from the bile of bears in horrid conditions in china surely not please can someone put my mind at rest. I could not take it if that were the case?

[CheshireEm]

Hi, according to Wikipedia:

"The active therapeutic substance in bear bile—and in the bile of all mammals—is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Before the manufacture of UDCA by pharmaceutical companies, bear bile was prescribed by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine because it contained a higher percentage of UDCA than the bile of other mammals. However, modern chemistry has made this fact irrelevant. Today, pharmaceutical-grade UDCA is now collected from slaughterhouses, then purified and packaged under trade names such as Ursosan, Ursofalk, Actigall, and UrsoForte"

So my understanding is that it's not collected from bears or any other living animal any more.

There was quite a heated thread on this a short while ago so I'm steering clear of any opinions! (Self confessed coward!!)

Take care x

[Hidden]

Hello Shirleygreen.

I think you'll find if you were to look back on older Bear Facts (not sure if they are all online as noticed they are now on Foundation website under Members Section), there was a short article on the urso and that it originally was discovered from bears but like most pharmaceuticals these days synthetic equivalents are manufactured.

I don't believe all I read on the net and reagrding Wikipaedia I am not sure if all the information is wholly correct.

The thing is a lot of medicines have been come across via animals. HRT for instance was apparently discovered via pregnant mare's urine and back in the 1900s insulin for diabetics was from pigs but today it is all synthesized.

[butterflyEi]

The post to which I believe you refer was taken down because it was inflammatory, spurious and ill informed.

Urso is now synthetically produced.

[Gioielli]

Robert at the PBC Foundation replied to this assuring us that Urdu is completely sympathetically manufactured.

[liver-bird]

Don't worry. Our urso is made in a factory, not a bear in sight.

[Shirleygreen]

Thank u so much everyone u have put my mind at rest thank goodness for this site but I know they r still doing that awful practice in China for other things. Wish so much it cud b stopped along with other things they do to animals but I guess that's for another site ! Thanks once again.