Beginning January, Illinois will prohibit the sale of the herb salvia divinorum because of the plant's unique hallucinogenic properties. Illinois joins other states that have placed the herb on the Schedule I substance list, which requires the strictest levels of control.

The prohibition on salvia divinorum's sale is the result of a bill authored by state Sen. Dennis Reboletti. "We decided to move forward rather than waiting for someone to be killed because of it," Reboletti said

Beginning January 1, 2008, Minnesota will implement a law banning mercury in cosmetics particularly in mascara, eye liners, and skin-lightening creams.

Sen. John Marty who sponsored the bill, said mercury, even in tiny quantities, can cause neurological damage to people, MSNBC reported. "Every source of mercury adds to it. We wanted to make sure it wasn't here," he added

China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) on Monday announced tighter rules on the export of anti-malaria drugs to Africa. The move is in response to complaints by importers of sub-standard drugs sold to them.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted SFDA deputy director Wu Zhen as saying that the new regulation requires the exportation of the drugs only by government-recognized pharmacies and the examination of the products before export

A major component of green tea could prove the perfect elixir for severe sepsis, an abnormal immune system response to a bacterial infection that kills 225,000 Americans every year.

Haichao Wang, PhD, of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and his colleagues have found that an ingredient in green tea rescued mice from lethal sepsis

Researchers from St Vincent's Campus in Sydney have developed a new way to control the extreme weight loss, common in late stage cancer, which often speeds death. The MIC-1 findings will prevent a sizeable proportion of advanced cancer patients from literally wasting away.

The findings, published in Nature Medicine, suggest it may soon be possible to prevent this condition, giving people the strength to survive treatment and improve their chances of recovery