China's State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) blacklisted 46 websites for selling fake herbal medicines on Monday.

Consumers were warned against buying drugs from organizations including the Foreign-related Cooperation Center of Chinese Medicine Research Institute (www.gaoxueya666.com) and the Chinese Medicine Academy of Cardiovascular Diseases (www.gxz117.com).

Drugs sold on those sites claimed to be able to cure high blood pressure, skin diseases, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Names of all 46 blacklisted websites have been made public on SATCM's website at www.satcm.gov.cn.

SATCM reported the sites to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for further investigation. Those sites could be shut down.

Since last year, the administration had found and exposed 365 websites selling counterfeit traditional Chinese medicine, most of which had been closed by authorities.

Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman with the State Food and Drug Administration, urged consumers to buy drugs only from websites licensed by the administration for online pharmaceutical business.

A full list of those 11 websites in China licensed to sell over-the-counter (OTC) drugs online is available on the administration's website (www.sfda.gov.cn).

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)