In 2004 - 2005, the Institute of Medicinal Materials of the Ministry of Health, together with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Health of Nghe An, coordinated with relevant sectors to investigate medicinal plants in 10 districts such as Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Thanh Chuong, Con Cuong, Que Phong... Thereby, it was recorded that in Nghe An there are a total of 962 species of medicinal plants and medicinal mushrooms belonging to 635 genera, 183 families of 5 branches of vascular plants and fungi. Grasping the major policy of the Party and State on developing medicinal plants under the forest canopy, Nghe An has built many good models compared to the whole country.
Puxailaileng Peak is 2,720m above sea level, the highest mountain in the North of Truong Son, located in Na Ngoi Commune, Ky Son District. This place contains many mysteries of Mother Nature with ancient forests remaining on the mountain top covered in clouds all year round. About 15km away from Puxailaileng Peak, is the Buoc Mu Border Guard Station of Na Ngoi Border Guard Station, on the other side of the station is the neighboring country of Laos. Next to the border guard station, a few years ago, the growers and cultivators of precious medicinal herbs of Nghe An province set foot here, stayed to start the journey to conquer Puxailaileng; "making Puxailaileng splendid" as Ms. Thai Huong - Chairman of the famous TH Group said.
Ms. Thai Huong shared: “Having to step foot step by step into each layer of mud on the road up the mountain, I have come to check, urge and grasp the situation of planting and developing medicinal herbs here many times. From Hanoi, I drove straight to Nghe An and then to Muong Long, Na Ngoi of Ky Son district… Back then, it took a whole day from Vinh to reach Na Ngoi because the road was extremely difficult. I kept going and only saw clouds and mountains, but then when I saw my colleagues in the company passionately researching, sticking with it, and being dedicated, when I saw dozens of hectares of precious medicinal herbs blooming and growing well under the forest canopy, I was happy to find a new path for the West. From then on, I was not discouraged, I encouraged my colleagues to stay, continue to invest, and multiply this treasure. I hope that from these medicinal herb forests, the mountains and forests will bloom. That is also the most practical direction for medicinal herbs under the forest canopy - a major policy of the Party and the State today”.
Following Mrs. Thai Huong, we were able to come and witness the hectares of medicinal herb forests expanding under the forest canopy; with Puxalaileng ginseng, Morinda officinalis, yellow flower tea, Codonopsis pilosula, seven-leaf one-flower ginseng, Angelica sinensis, Panax pseudoginseng, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Chua Du, Sarsaparilla, Achyranthes aspera, Roselle, Panax pseudoginseng, Purple Orchid… In particular, Purple Orchid is a precious medicinal herb, according to records, it was once considered by the Empress Dowager Cixi of China to be the “top” in the list of precious medicinal herbs, and has multiplied into tens of thousands of plants under the forest canopy on Puxailaileng Mountain.
In July, the weather in Nghe An is hot and sunny, but in Na Ngoi, it rains lightly and is cool. The medicinal herbs here grow healthily, peacefully absorbing the natural air and producing flowers and leaves without watering. At 6am, the Ky Son hills were still covered in mist, we were awakened by the urgent working atmosphere of workers and local people coming to the camp to weed, hoe the land, and take care of the medicinal herbs. Dozens of Mong workers worked from early morning, they hoe the land to plant medicinal herbs. In the precious medicinal herb gardens such as the seven-leaf-one-flower tree and Puxailaileng ginseng, the care requires specialized engineers to monitor carefully to ensure humidity, air, light and nutritional conditions suitable for the weather.
Mr. Nguyen Trong Canh - Deputy General Director of Muong Long Medicinal Materials Joint Stock Company said that in Na Ngoi commune, over 200,000 clumps of purple orchids have been planted using the method of attaching them to forest trees on a forest area of 13.0 hectares. Currently, the orchids are growing well, including 5 hectares of Panax pseudoginseng, 1.3 hectares of Codonopsis pilosula, and nearly 1,000 one-year-old yellow tea plants under the sparse forest canopy. In addition, the company has also planted a number of precious medicinal plants such as: 1,000 Fuxailaileng ginseng plants, 5,000 Kim Tuyen orchid plants, and 500m of seven-leaf, one-flower ginseng.2, approximately 500m2,…
The company also tested planting some plants such as Ngoc Linh ginseng by seeds and tubers,... In Muong Long, 17.8 hectares of doi and 2,000m2Panax notoginseng, 2 hectares of Gynostemma pentaphyllum, 3 hectares of Shan Tuyet tea, 1 hectare of Japanese angelica, 1.2 hectares of Codonopsis pilosula, 0.5 hectares of Salvia miltiorrhiza, various types of perilla, chrysanthemum, Chinese clematis, Atractylodes Rhizome, black turmeric, black ginger, Panax notoginseng, red Polygonum multiflorum, Scrophularia ningpoensis, Amomum japonicus, Atractylodes Rhizome... The company is currently in the process of building a conservation area to grow medicinal plants, and has so far grown over 40 other medicinal herbs.
With a breakthrough direction, TH Group has the aspiration to put Vietnamese medicinal herbs on the world map. Businesswoman Thai Huong confided: “For me, doing business must bring “true happiness”, I do not chase after profit but always put the national interest in mind, pioneering in protecting the health of consumers. Entering the field of medicinal herbs after success with the clean milk industry with many projects in Australia, Russia and domestically, I am confident that the Vietnamese medicinal herbs industry has great potential for development, especially the precious natural medicinal herbs potential of Nghe An. Making medicinal herbs is the way to help Western Nghe An escape poverty, the hills and mountains bloom, people in the border areas have jobs, have income, love the forest, protect the forest, the country has more sustainable development models”.
In fact, right in Muong Long, an extraction and processing factory has been established to produce herbal medicines completely from nature. Ganoderma tea, chrysanthemum tea - passionflower, ginger tea, ginseng tea and other medicinal herbs and essential oils have been gradually processed and brought to consumers. The group's products are processed according to the US FDA standards, which are the highest standards for health safety. After having a processing factory, TH Group is building a 5-star general hospital and a cancer research center to implement a new way of thinking about health care. The group develops the pharmaceutical industry with sustainable pillars, ensuring from production to consumption. A tight chain from production to domestic and international markets has been planned.
In 2013, the People's Committee of Nghe An province approved the project "Conservation and development of high-quality medicinal resources associated with sustainable forest development in Nghe An province" to build a concentrated production area for some medicinal plants on the land of Forestry Enterprises, Youth Volunteer Teams, and households of 11 districts and towns (15,450 hectares) to create raw materials for processing factories with a capacity of 50,000 tons of raw medicinal materials/year. Currently, in addition to TH Group, in Nghe An, there is also Pu Mat Medicinal Company which has successfully built a brand and grown from medicinal materials under the forest canopy. Pu Mat's rare medicinal resources are cultivated and developed in the buffer zone of Pu Mat National Forest - the largest natural biosphere reserve in Southeast Asia. Pu Mat Medicinal Company's products are all produced on modern production lines with main product lines such as Solanum procumbens, Gymnema sylvestre, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, etc.
In particular, Nghe An has also approved the "Project framework for provincial-level gene conservation tasks to be implemented from 2014 to 2020", aiming to conserve the gene sources of precious and rare medicinal species such as golden flower tea, mu tun, codonopsis, spiny acanthopanax, smilax glabra, red betel nut, Puxailaileng ginseng...
On April 3, 2018, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 1187/QD-UBND approving the Master Plan for the development of medicinal herbs in Nghe An province until 2025, with a vision to 2030. According to this plan, the goal is to conserve 38 medicinal plant species with a total area of 15 hectares in 3 conservation areas including: Lien Hop (Quy Hop), Hanh Dich (Que Phong) and Muong Long (Ky Son). Exploit 17 species and groups of medicinal plants in 13 districts and towns with an expected annual output of about 900 tons. Build a concentrated medicinal plant growing area of 14 species and groups of medicinal plants with a total area of 905 hectares in 11 districts and towns.
This plan also sets out the goals, tasks and solutions to preserve and develop medicinal herbs in Nghe An province. The project "Master plan for medicinal herbs development in Nghe An province to 2025, with a vision to 2030" is considered a panoramic picture of medicinal herbs development in Nghe An, in line with the socio-economic development orientation of the province, the region and the planning of sectors and fields in the province and in line with the development orientation of the Central Government. From this plan, together with the support of the locality, the agility and determination of large corporations and companies, Nghe An promises to be a bright spot in the country in medicinal herbs under the forest canopy, contributing to forest protection, living off the forest to make the forest rich.
Recently, in Tuong Duong district, the project "Supporting communities in buffer zone communes to develop medicinal plants under forest canopy to increase income and conserve biodiversity in the Western Nghe An World Biosphere Reserve" with a total support budget of up to 5 billion VND has been launched. This is also a project within the framework of the program "Integrating natural resource management and biodiversity conservation goals into socio-economic development planning and management of biosphere reserves in Vietnam" funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Development Program.
(To be continued)
