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

During his many years of contribution to the country's medicine, Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh has contributed to creating outstanding achievements, including the "miracle drug" Berberin. He passed away on August 7, 2019, causing endless grief.

"King of Medicine" Phan Quoc Kinh

Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh - 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 University of Medicine and Pharmacy (the predecessor of Hanoi University of Pharmacy and Hanoi Medical University today).

In 1963, he went to study in the Soviet Union. After 3 years, when he returned to Vietnam, he accepted a teaching and research position at Hanoi University of Pharmacy.

With the research of many traditional medicines recognized both domestically and internationally, Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh is considered the person who connects traditional and modern medicine. In particular, Berberin pills, his first recognized traditional medicine, saved millions of lives during the dysentery epidemic in the early 70s of the last century.

How was Berberine born?

In the early 70s of the 20th century, when the war in the North was still fierce, in addition to natural disasters (the great flood in 1971), Vietnamese people also had to suffer the consequences of dangerous dysentery.

The epidemic spread rapidly in the plains and mountainous provinces, patients suffered from continuous diarrhea until exhaustion and death. At this time, Vietnam could not import medicine because of the siege, and medicine warehouses were always depleted.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, in early 1972, the leaders of the Ministry of Health, chaired by Minister Vu Van Can and Professor Ho Dac Di - Principal of Hanoi Medical University, met and decided to create a new medicine to suppress the epidemic. This was an extremely difficult task, but Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh, then only 35 years old, stood up on behalf of Hanoi Medical University to take responsibility for inventing a medicine to suppress the epidemic, with the promise to provide enough medicine for the Ministry after 6 months.

Immediately after that, Pharmacist Phan Quoc Kinh suggested that Hanoi University of Pharmacy mobilize maximum teaching staff and students to go to villages in mountainous and plain areas, start to learn and collect experiences of people and traditional healers on the use of traditional medicines to treat dysentery. After having in hand hundreds of traditional medicine prescriptions combined with traditional and modern medical documents, the research team selected 20 medicinal plants with the ability to fight against microorganisms that cause dysentery to test their antibiotic effects.

Three months later, the group started collecting medicinal herbs in Lao Cai province and some delta provinces and prepared two medicines: Codanxit (extracted from the plant Hoang Dang and large-leafed milkweed) and Berberin (extracted from barberry and Phellodendron), which have the effect of fighting against pathogenic bacteria and against amoebas that cause dysentery.

Professor Ton That Tung tested the drug on patients at Viet Duc Hospital and himself, and the results were very promising. The drug was immediately mass-produced, helping to stamp out the dangerous and complicated dysentery epidemic in the North.

At that time, Berberine was considered a "miracle drug" that saved the lives of millions of people. Although half a century has passed since that day, Berberine is still a familiar name in most Vietnamese family medicine cabinets because of its convenience, effectiveness and affordable price.

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

He also had the honor of being assigned to prepare tonics and vitality enhancers for Lao Revolutionary leader Kaysone Phomvihane, and to help the Cambodian pharmaceutical industry produce Berberine from the bitter yellow plant.

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

In 1975, Dr. Phan Quoc Kinh received a certificate of merit from Prime Minister Pham Van Dong for scientific research, the State Prize for Science and Technology in 2000 and many other noble domestic and international awards.

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

vov.vn