A Sina Weibo user called attention to a trend in Chinese tobacco that involves leaning on TCM as a marketing tool with a post that went viral on Tuesday.
Photos by "ZhuiFengShao JianLiuQuan" show cigarettes labeled with added tangerine peel and loquat, which are used in TCM for digestive problems.
Another contains Chinese caterpillar fungus, which is famous in Chinese medicine as, among other things, an expensive aphrodisiac.
China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co. is one of the companies selling the products, according to reports.
The "herbs" are found in small liquid-gel beads in the filters, as in China's more common "fruit flavored" tobacco.
Netizens had their usual fun. "I caught a cold, I hope this can cure my cough," wrote Judy_Kim.
China enforced a nationwide public smoking ban in 2014 to varying success.
Anti-smoking groups in China have railed against claims that TCM-laced cigarettes are in some way healthy in the early 2000s, media reported.
Marketing tobacco with the health benefits of TCM also goes against regulations for tobacco control set by the World Health Organization, of which China is a member.
This article was written and originally in the Global Times.
