The saga of the Duchy Original tinctures continues as the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have upheld complaints from the public on the herbal medicine additions to the Prince of Wales’s Duchy brand. The Duchy Herbals line includes ‘Echina-Relief Tincture’, ‘Hyperi-Lift Tincture’ and the ‘Detox Tincture’ which was branded ‘outright quackery’ by the UK’s leading complementary medicine professor Edzard Ernst. Though the MHRA gave Duchy Originals a license to sell the tinctures, the regulatory body didn’t give permission for the potential health benefits of the products to be advertised as there was no proof of their efficacy. As a result, the Duchy Original’s site has been ordered to remove the adverts for the products until the wording is changed to something ‘less misleading’. There’s been no word from Clarence House on the matter, but surely this new step into healthcare is a long way from the brand Prince Charles created way back in 1990 which was apparently focussed on organic food and farming.
BeatrixFan British Royals Duchy Originals, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Click the image to see the photo at the Duchy Originals website
It seems that England is producing some miracle cures from the unlikeliest of sources. Firstly there’s the £15 bottle of water from the English Channel currently sweeping parts of the USA and France which claims to rejuvenate and replenish (what doesn’t these days?) and has, according to London’s Metro paper, been proved to turn back the hands of time. And secondly and even more unlikely is the new addition the the Duchy Originals “herbal” range. It’s a mix of dandelions and artichokes which is said to aid digestion and detox the body and is being flogged under the rather twee name of “Duchy Original’s Herbal Tincture”.
However, a Professor from the Peninsula Medical School has denounced the tincture as ‘quackery’ saying; “Prince Charles [is] financially exploiting a gullible public in a time of financial hardship”. Still, no word from the UK Chief Medical Officer or the Royal College of Physicians and so the product will continue to be sold. According to a Duchy spokesman; “There is no “quackery”, no “make believe” and no “superstition” in any of the Duchy Originals herbal tinctures. We find it unfortunate that Professor Ernst should chase sensationalist headlines in this way rather than concentrating on accuracy and objectivity.”
It’s an interesting thought that the heir to the throne has turned apothecary to the nation and although I’m as big a fan of Charles as anyone can be, it’ll be a cold day in East London before I crack open a jar of Duchy Originals Leeches.
BeatrixFan British Royals Duchy Originals, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
