Fearing chromium-contaminated capsules, some patients have begun to explore new ways to take medicine - and not always beneficial ways.

On Monday morning, a 60-year-old woman in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, rushed to hospital after she removed the coating of three capsules and swallowed the medicinal powder directly. She later felt extreme pain in her throat.

"I caught a cold recently and have to take many medicines, but most of them are capsule medicines," the woman, surnamed Huang, told Hangzhou-based newspaper City Express.