Robert P. McGraw, a member of the prominent U.S. publishing family, spent 32 years managing 24 publishing houses in 70 countries, before a cup of a special beverage changed his life. On an airplane trip a year ago, McGraw tried a drink made of LHK, a Chinese herb that helps relieve respiratory discomfort. Both the taste and the comfort it brought to his throat were enough to lure McGraw away from the family business. He went to China, set up Longjiang River Health Products and aimed to introduce the magic LHK, as well as other Chinese herbs, to the world.

Longjiang River Health Products LLC, a China-based herbal product company announced yesterday that it has entered the U.S. market. The company, the first all Chinese-herbal outfit to knock on the American market door, expects to take 10 percent of the health product market of the U.S. within a few years.

Longjiang’s products, mainly health supplements made of LHK, have been broadly welcomed by consumers in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. As for the American market, McGraw expects to turn a profit in the fourth quarter of next year.

“This is the best time to enter the U.S. market,” said Longjiang River’s C.E.O. “Although the retailers are still a bit hesitant, the consumers are ready for Chinese herbs.”

Chinese traditional medicine practitioners in the United States share McGraw’s optimism. “Chinese herbs and traditional medicine are more widespread in mainstream America, especially since last year,” said Yongming Li, president at the American Chinese Medicine Practitioners Association. “The increase in research funding from the government points to this.”

In fact, in the past year, U.S. government spending on research of Chinese traditional medicine has hit a record high. Ten years ago, the budget of the National Institute of Health for alternative medicines was only $2 million. Last year the budget increased to more than $100 million, with one fourth of the budget going to research traditional Chinese medicine.

Of the dozen internationally coordinated medical research projects sponsored by the NIH last year, half were on Chinese traditional medicine. Also, at the end of last year, Harvard University received a grant of $5.9 million from the NIH for a research project on acupuncture; it is the largest grant ever given for this type of research.

A recent Federal Drug Administration (FDA) prohibition on the sales of dietary supplements containing ephedra -- a Chinese herb which is good for the lungs – made an exception for ephedra found in Chinese herbal medicine. “This is the first time in FDA history that it has listed an exception in a prohibition,” said Li. “It’s an alternative way for the FDA to admit that Chinese herbal medicine really can be effective.”

Folly Bayne, a Washington D.C. based lawyer whose specialty is FDA regulations, agrees: “The respect and understanding of traditional Chinese medicine in the FDA’s prohibition is historic. It’s definitely good news for the practitioners.”

There is concern, however, that no Chinese herbal medicine has ever been approved by the FDA as a prescription drug, impacting negatively on the promotion of herbal medicines. “So far, herbal medicine is only approved as health supplements,” said Bayne. “The FDA needs to approve all the ingredients in a drug before approving it as prescription drug. There are always a lot of ingredients in Chinese medicine, making the approval process very hard.”

However, the practitioners are trying to work it out. “This is a good moment to make a push,” said Li, whose association is lobbying Washington for greater official approval of Chinese herbal treatments.