流感肆虐后，一款让美剧演员疯狂打Call的中国神药火了

If there’s one thing New Yorkers love more than discovering a new secret remedy, it’s telling other New Yorkers about it.

纽约人最热衷的事除了发现治病新秘方，还有就是把新秘方分享给其他人。

“I’d been super sick for a week and half and couldn’t stop coughing,” said Alex Schweder, an architect and professor of design at Pratt Institute.

世界第9大艺术学院普瑞特的教授兼建筑师Alex Schweder告诉记者，“我已经病了一个多星期了，一直都在咳嗽”

That’s when his girlfriend gave him a bottle of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, an “herbal dietary supplement with honey and loquat,” according to the label.

就在那时，他的女朋友给了一瓶念慈庵枇杷膏，这是一种“蜂蜜和枇杷的草药补品”。

“This started working in 15 minutes,” said Mr. Schweder.

“神奇的是，15分钟就开始见效了，”Schweder说。

“I’ve probably gotten about five people to try it, but I’ve told many more.”

“已经安利给5个人试过，并且我分享给了更多的人。”

Mr. Schweder’s girlfriend, Oberon Sinclair, owner of a creative agency, first learned about the herbal supplement nearly 30 years ago when she was living in Hong Kong.

他的女友Oberon Sinclair是一家创意公司的老板，近30年前在香港生活时，第一次听说这种草药补品。

The remedy, often referred to simply as Pei Pa Koa, is sold both in cough-drop form and more commonly in 10-ounce bottles in Chinese markets and Chinese pharmacies for approximately $7 as well as online through third parties for up to $70.

这个药方被称为“枇杷膏”，在中国市场和线上线下的药店每瓶10盎司（约300ml）售价在7美元，而通过代购则高达70美元。

Taking herbal supplements can involve health risks, including when they are used with medicines, consumed in excess or taken instead of prescription medication, said Dr. Keith Brenner, specialist in pulmonary medicine at Columbia University Medical Center at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.

纽约长老会医院哥伦比亚大学医学中心的肺医学专家Keith Brenner 博士说，服用草药补充剂可能会带来健康风险，包括服用药物时，过量服用或服用非处方药。

“I think people that use these things may not even disclose them to the physician, and it’s a problem,” he said.

他说：“我认为，使用这些药物的人甚至可能不会向医生透露这些信息，这会存在隐患。”

“There’s been well-established interactions between herbal and prescription, and the doctor can pick up on it if the patient discloses it.”

“现在处方中也会开一些草药，如果患者提到了在服用或服用过一些草药，医生会对其进行更全面的检查。”

The Food and Drug Administration advises consumers to speak to a health-care provider before taking a supplement and to be wary of any product claims that sound too good to be true.

美国食品和药物管理局建议消费者在服用保健品前先与医疗服务提供者进行沟通，并对那些虚假宣传的产品提出警告。

The agency doesn’t have the authority to review dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness.

该机构没有权力审查膳食补充剂的安全性和有效性。

Herbal remedies with loquat have been produced in China for hundreds of years.

在中国使用枇杷作为中草药已有几百年的历史。

The Nin Jiom Medicine Manufactory began producing Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa in Hong Kong in 1946.

1946年，京都念慈庵总厂有限公司在香港成立。

The Chinese characters on the bottle translate to “Beijing, in memory of my mother loquat thick paste.”

瓶子上的汉字（京都念慈庵）翻译过来的意思是“北京，念亲恩的枇杷膏。”

The company began marketing it to mainland China, North America, and Europe in the 1980s.

该公司在20世纪80年代开始将其推广到中国大陆、北美和欧洲市场。

Competing loquat syrup remedies are still produced in Hong Kong, but they remain less popular.

在香港，人们仍在生产与之竞争的枇杷糖浆，但它们的受欢迎程度仍然较低。

“All of a sudden, everybody is talking about it,” said Ching Weh Chen, owner of Pearl River, a Chinese market in New York City where the syrup is sold for $7.80.

“突然之间，每个人都在谈论它，”在纽约的中国市场——珠江百货的老板陈炜说，“这款糖浆的售价为7.80美元。”

“Chinese people have known about it for a long, long time.

“中国人早就知道这件事了。”

It goes back to Qing dynasty, but now it’s Caucasian customers coming in and asking for it.”

它可以追溯到清朝时期，但现在是白人顾客进来要货了。”

Sue Decottis, a physician in internal medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center who also has a private practice, says herbals can have some value and she will, on occasion, recommend them to her patients.

纽约大学兰贡医学中心内科内科医生 Sue Decottis 也有私人诊所，她说草药可以有一定的价值，她有时会向病人推荐这些药物。

She hasn’t prescribed Pei Pa Koa.

她没有把枇杷膏当成处方。

“There’s also the placebo effect with anything like that, but there’s no real money behind it to do big studies,” Dr. Decottis said.

“还有安慰剂效应，但目前后面没有资金支持这个草药的药理研究，”Decottis 医生说。

“I got a bottle of it in the height of my flu which seemed to hang about this year for two months deep in my chest and not let go,” said Matthew Modine, the actor currently starring in Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”

“我在流感最严重的时候喝了一瓶，今年流感似乎驻扎进了我的肺，都两个月了，病就是不好，”目前在Netflix推出的美剧“怪奇物语”（Stranger Things）中担任主角的Matthew Modine说。

Mr. Modine bought the product on Amazon and paid about $30.

Modine先生在亚马逊上买了这款产品，花了大约30美元。

“My only trepidation was that it was coming from a country with different standards,” said Mr. Modine, who was familiar with loquat from his childhood in Los Angeles.

“我唯一担心的是，它来自一个有着不同标准的国家，”Modine先生说，他在洛杉矶的童年时代对枇杷很熟悉。

“They’d fall off a tree and we’d pick them up and throw them at cars.”

“枇杷会从树上掉下来，然后我们会捡起来扔到汽车里去。”

“With respect to influenza, the most critical time to get attention is when the virus hits because antivirals like Tamiflu need to be administered within the first 48 hours if they’re going to be effective,” said Dr. Brenner.

“就流感而言，需要重视的最关键时刻是病毒感染的时间，因为如果达菲等抗病毒药物有效的话，需要在最初48小时内服用，”Brenner博士说。

“If herbals are the first line of defense, we’d lose that window, especially if someone has other medical problems, and there’s a higher risk the flu virus will lead to hospitalization or even death.”

“如果将草药作为第一道防线，我们就会失去这个窗口期，特别是如果有人有其他的医疗问题，那么流感病毒就会导致住院甚至更可怕的死亡风险。”

New York State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker urged everyone to get a flu shot and said anyone with flu symptomsshould see their health-care provider.

纽约州卫生局局长Howard Zucker敦促每个人注射流感疫苗，并说任何有流感症状的人都应该去看他们的医疗服务提供者。

Poet Max Blagg, who learned about Pei Pa Koa from an acupuncturist in Chinatown, said: “I was a little apprehensive.

诗人 Max Blagg 从唐人街的针灸师那里知道的枇杷膏，他说：“我有点担心。

If you look on the label, there’s a thousand herbs you’ve never heard of.”

如果你看一下标签，有一千种你从未听说过的药草。”

Mr. Blagg passed the recommendation along to painter James Gilroy, who had the flu for three weeks.

他把这个方子告诉了患流感持续三周的画家James Gilroy。

“He showed me a bottle with some crazy Chinese writing on it and I thought no, I’m going to go to a doctor,” said Mr. Gilroy.

“他给我看了一个瓶子，上面写着一些疯狂的中文，我想，不，我还是去看医生比较稳妥，”Gilroy说。