Can a Thai herbal tea cure lung disease? No, this is not true: According to the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is no scientific proof of this.
The claim reappeared in a video (archived here) which was published on TikTok on November 21, 2023.
The person speaking in the video says:
Those who have been infected (with Covid-19) should drink this tea. It helps with coughing, kills lung diseases, detoxifies the lungs and improves their condition.
(Translation from Thai into English by Lead Stories staff).
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 5 04:44:48 2024 UTC)
The clip claims that the product is registered with the Thai FDA and has license number 10-1-25061-5-0146.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 5 04:44:48 2024 UTC)
A review of the Thai FDA's system (archived here), also shown in the image below, revealed that Darin Herbal Tea had been registered with the FDA and held license No. 10-1-25061-5-0146. It also showed that the company canceled its product registration on January 5, 2024.
(Source: Thai FDA product search, screenshot taken on Sun Jan 7 10:15:17 2024 UTC)
In a telephone conversation on January 8, 2024, an FDA official confirmed to Lead Stories that Darin tea had been registered in the food category and that its main ingredients are Emblica and other herbs, e.g., myrobalan and licorice. However, since no efficacy evaluation for a lung-related treatment was provided, the tea cannot be promoted as having health benefits.
