Revista de biodiversidad y especies en peligro de extinción

Tiger Image on Medicinal Plasters Serve as a Cue for Traditional Medicine Consumers

Abstract

Zhao Liu and Zhigang Jiang

In the past, Musk and Tiger Bone Plaster (Tiger Bone Plaster for shorter) was one of most common nonprescription Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Since 1993, China banned all trade in tiger bones and its derivatives in 1993. Musk deer were up-listed as Category I State Key Protected Wild Animal Species in China in 2002. The plaster manufactures changed the prescription of Tiger Bone Plaster and used synthetic musk and herb medicines and changed the name of Tiger Bone Plaster to “Musk and Bone Strengthening Plaster” but packages of some brands of the plasters still carry a tiger’s image on it. Thus, consumers still consider the plasters as “Tiger Bone Plaster” because of the tiger image on the package. To investigate the consumer perception and behaviors of “Musk and Bone Strengthening Plaster”, we surveyed 418 citizens in Beijing in 2014. We found that 43.78% of respondents alleged that they had used “Tiger Bone Plaster”. When we inquired, almost all of respondents confirmed that the plasters they had used were “Musk and Bone Strengthening Plaster”. Presumably, tiger’s image on the plaster package produces a conditional stimulus to the consumers. Consumers preferred buying the plasters packed with tiger’s image printed on the package. In fact, no people had really consumed Tiger Bone Plaster in this investigation. For the sake of protecting tigers, we argue the manufacturers to remove the tiger image from the “Musk and Bone Strengthening Plaster” according to the regulations of CITES.