The creator of the 'miracle drug' Berberine has passed away.

Throughout his many years of contributing to the country's medical field, Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh played a key role in creating outstanding achievements, including the "miracle drug" Berberine. He passed away on August 7, 2019, causing immeasurable grief.

"The King of Pharmacy" Phan Quoc Kinh

Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh, a pharmacist, was born in 1937 in Tung Anh commune, Duc Tho district, Ha Tinh province. In 1954, he studied at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Hanoi Medical University (the predecessor of the current Hanoi University of Pharmacy and Hanoi Medical University).

In 1963, he went to study in the Soviet Union. Three years later, upon returning to Vietnam, he took up a teaching and research position at Hanoi University of Pharmacy.

With his research and development of numerous traditional Vietnamese medicines recognized both domestically and internationally, Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh is considered a bridge between traditional and modern medicine. In particular, his Berberine tablets, the first officially recognized traditional Vietnamese medicine, saved millions of lives during the dysentery epidemic of the early 1970s.

How did berberine come into existence?

In the early 1970s, when the war in North Vietnam was still raging, in addition to natural disasters (the great flood of 1971), the Vietnamese people also had to bear the consequences of a dangerous dysentery epidemic.

The epidemic spread rapidly in the lowland and mountainous provinces, with patients suffering from persistent diarrhea until they became exhausted and died. At this time, Vietnam could not import medicine due to the blockade, and drug warehouses were constantly running low.

Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, in early 1972, the Ministry of Health leadership, under the chairmanship of Minister Vu Van Can and Professor Ho Dac Di - Rector of Hanoi Medical University, met and decided that a new drug had to be developed to suppress the epidemic. This was an extremely difficult task, but Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh, then only 35 years old, on behalf of Hanoi Medical University, stepped forward to take responsibility for inventing the drug to combat the dysentery epidemic, promising to supply the Ministry with enough medicine within six months.

Immediately afterwards, Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh suggested that Hanoi University of Pharmacy mobilize its teaching staff and students to go to villages in mountainous and lowland areas to begin researching and gathering experiences from the people and traditional healers about using herbal remedies to treat dysentery. After gathering hundreds of herbal remedies combined with traditional and modern medical literature, the research team selected 20 medicinal plants with the potential to combat dysentery-causing microorganisms to test their antibiotic effects.

Three months later, the team began harvesting medicinal herbs in Lao Cai province and several other lowland provinces and successfully formulated two medicines: Codanxit (extracted from the plant *Cynanchum auriculatum* and *Eucalyptus auriculatum*) and Berberine (extracted from *Coptis chinensis* and *Phellodendron amurense*), which are effective against pathogenic bacteria and amoebas that cause dysentery.

Professor Ton That Tung tested the medicine on patients at Viet Duc Hospital and also used it himself, with very positive results. The medicine was immediately mass-produced, contributing to the suppression of the dangerous and complex dysentery epidemic in the North.

At that time, berberine was considered a "miracle drug" that saved millions of lives. Even though half a century has passed since then, berberine remains a familiar name in most Vietnamese family medicine cabinets due to its convenience, effectiveness, and affordable price.

Over many years of contributing to the country's medical field, Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh and his colleagues have researched and produced nearly 20 types of medicines from Vietnamese ingredients.

He also had the honor of being assigned to prepare tonics and vitality-boosting medicines for the Laotian revolutionary leader Kaysone Phomvihane, and assisted the Cambodian pharmaceutical industry in producing berberine from the Coptis chinensis plant.

Many of Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh's research papers have been published in scientific journals in the Soviet Union, the United States, Germany, and Switzerland.

In 1975, Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh received a commendation from Prime Minister Pham Van Dong for his scientific research, a joint State Prize for Science and Technology in 2000, and many other prestigious awards both domestically and internationally.

However, on August 7, 2019, Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh passed away, leaving behind immeasurable grief for everyone.