With the extraction of bile from bears arousing public disputes, some pharmacists believe there is a substitute - though after decades of experiments it has not been approved by the country's drug authority.

Shenyang Pharmaceutical University began to study artificial bear bile as early as 1983, with trials covering acute tonsillitis, high blood pressure, hemorrhoids as well as swollen eyes.

According to Zhou Jie, former Party secretary of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, hundreds of clinical trials have shown that there is no clear difference between artificial bear bile and natural bile.

"All the trials were done by famous hospitals," Zhou said.

He showed China Daily the reports on different symptoms written by the four hospitals. Taking acute tonsillitis as an example, 295 cases have shown that the effect is remarkable, with an effective rate of 96.1 percent. The report displayed that "the composition and medical functions (of artificial bear bile) are almost the same as natural bear bile".

However, the conclusions have not been admitted by the State Food and Drug Administration. In 2002 and 2004, the drug evaluation center of the administration replied that "artificial bear bile has clear differences with natural bear bile and cannot be used as a substitute."

"But they didn't tell us what the differences are," Zhou said.