Prince Charles's Duchy Originals company has been forced to amend a campaign promoting two herbal medicines after regulators said healing claims on the firm's website were misleading.
Advertisements for Duchy Herbals Echina-Relief Tincture and Duchy Herbals Hyperi-Lift Tincture, which cost £10 per bottle, appeared on the company's website in January, prompting a complaint from a member of the public who questioned the lack of scientific evidence for the products.
After seven weeks of deliberation the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the licensing body responsible for assessing herbal medicines for safety, upheld the complaint prompting the company to change the wording of the adverts and remove the previous claims.
A MHRA spokesman said: "Nelsons, the registration holder, on behalf of Duchy Originals agreed they would amend their advertising and remove claims of efficacy from their website and all future advertising."
The decision comes days after the country's leading expert on complementary medicine, Professor Edzard Ernst, cast doubt over claims of the detoxifying properties of a third food supplement sold under the Duchy Originals banner. The Advertising Standards Authority is investigating claims made on behalf of the Duchy Herbals Detox Tincture which says it can rid the body of toxins.
The British Dietetic Association recently said there was no "potion or lotion" to "magically" rid the body of chemicals.
Duchy Originals says its detox tincture is a legitimate food supplement aiding digestion and "has never been described as a medicine or cure".
