Walking into Linqi Town, Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province, rows of farmhouses painted with exquisite paintings of traditional Chinese medicine - fructus corni, raspberry, radix peucedani, rhizoma polygonati, rhizoma paridis and tetrastigma hemsleyanum, which are known as the "Six Flavors of Chun’an", come into view. Surrounded by green mountains and waters, the local people have made a fortune from traditional Chinese medicine, and more than 70% of the people are engaged in related industries, creating a road to prosperity.

Such a “Medicine Town” is not uncommon in Zhejiang. Zhejiang is known as the “Treasure House of Southeastern Medicinal Plants”, and the ecological environment of "seven mountains, one water and two fields" has nurtured rich traditional Chinese medicine resources such as "Eight Flavors of Zhejiang" and "New Eight Flavors of Zhejiang".

By riding the east wind of the development of traditional Chinese medicine, Zhejiang explores the road to common prosperity with traditional Chinese medicine. The Zhejiang Medical Products Administration has issued the "Action Plan to Promote the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry and Help Common Prosperity in 26 Counties in Mountainous Areas (2022-2025)”, established a special work team for common prosperity with traditional Chinese medicine, and compiled "Two Lists" of projects and key tasks supported by the administration. Through measures such as standardizing planting and formulating standards, the administration has promoted the development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry, increased the income of people in mountainous areas, and created industry landscape of common prosperity on traditional Chinese medicine.

Photo shows the traditional Chinese medicine rhizoma polygonati. Photo by Pan Qinwen

Formulate standards to regulate production of traditional Chinese medicine

"Medicine is good when medicinal materials are good." The quality of materials determines the quality of traditional Chinese medicine, which is important to the high-quality development of traditional Chinese medicine industry.

In recent years, Zhejiang continues to promote the standardized production of traditional Chinese medicine, implements the "Zhejiang Province's Guidance on Standardizing the Prepared Slices of Traditional Chinese Medicine Production Enterprises for Purchasing Fresh Cutting and Processing from the Origin (Trial)", and promotes the integrated development of primary processing of traditional Chinese medicinal materials from origin and production of prepared slices of traditional Chinese medicine. At the same time, the work of improving the standards of traditional Chinese medicines in Zhejiang was launched, and researches on the standards for traditional Chinese medicines (prepared slices) and the quality for traditional Chinese medicine formula granules have been actively carried out.

In Wuyi County, it has become a consensus to improve the quality and efficiency of traditional Chinese medicine clusters with standardization construction. The county actively strives for opportunities for enterprises to participate in the formulation of national standards and industry standards. Zhejiang Shou Xianggu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a leading local enterprise, has undertaken over 70 major national, provincial and ministerial level science and technology projects, such as "Research on Cultivation and Intensive Processing Industrialization of New Ganoderma Varieties" and "Research on Commodity Specification, Grade Standard of Ganoderma Lucidum and Dendrobium Candidum". The company also leads and participates in the formulation of 87 international standards, national standards, industry standards, local standards and group standards.

Since 2019, Wuyi County has provided 3.65 million yuan of standardization awards and subsidies, creating an industrial cluster of precious and rare medicinal materials that integrates industry focus and integration, excellent variety selection, imitation wild organic cultivation, traditional Chinese medicine processing, product research and development, clinical application, and standard formulation.

At the same time, medical use standards are also extremely important to the traditional Chinese medicinal materials. The lack of medical use standards will greatly affect clinical use, quality and safety guarantee.

Taking the phellinus linteus as an example. As a kind of medicinal fungus, its efficacy has been recorded in "Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica" and "Compendium of Materia Medica". "A few years ago, the category of phellinus linteus was unclear and its positioning was also inaccurate. When we were planning the phellinus linteus industry to expand the medicinal field, we found that there was a lack of professional talent team, and the project application was delayed.” said Yao Shengliang, head of Haining Hongxin Agricultural Biotechnology Co., LTD.

After learning about the difficulties of companies, the main officials at Zhejiang Medical Products Administration led teams to investigate phellinus linteus planting companies for many times, and they united the industry associations, scientific research institutes, planting enterprises, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to set up joint research groups, in order to carry out researches on the standards of phellinus linteus medicinal materials and processing specifications for prepared slices.

After four years, Zhejiang’s phellinus linteus traditional Chinese medicine standards and processing specifications for prepared slices were officially released in May 2022. Wang Weidong, director of the medicine registration, monitoring and evaluation office of Zhejiang Medical Products Administration, said that the formulation, promulgation and implementation of the standards not only standardizes the production and quality control of phellinus linteus medicinal materials and prepared slices, which ensures the quality and safety of medicine, but also promotes the standardized development of phellinus linteus planting industry, and helps to realize the high-quality development of traditional Chinese medicine industry empowered by scientific supervision.

With a "new identity", the phellinus linteus industry ushered in new opportunities. The reporter learned that at present, the cooperation between the two phellinus linteus planting companies in Haining City, Zhejiang Province has been extended to more pharmaceutical companies, such as Huadong Medicine, Tongjuntang Traditional Chinese Medicine and Deqing Zoli Pharmaceutical Technology. The annual sales will increase by nearly 10 million yuan. The city also built a common prosperity workshop for phellinus linteus planting, which can provide more than 50 flexible jobs and increase the annual income of employees by more than 20,000 yuan.

Industrial integration to increase people’s income

If promoting standardized production is to lay the foundation for the high-quality development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry, then exploring the development path of "secondary industry, primary industry to promote tertiary industry" is based on increasing people's income and promoting common prosperity.

In Tangling Village, Jinzhu Town, Suichang City, Zhejiang Province, there is a high mountain terrace with hundreds of tetrastigma hemsleyanum seedling greenhouses dotted around the field. This is the "Medicine King Valley", an authentic medicinal material planting base under the forest in Zhejiang.

The "Medicine King Valley", an authentic medicinal material planting base under the forest in Zhejiang. Photo by Fu Changyong

It is understood that the tetrastigma hemsleyanum is a key cultivated variety of "New Eight Flavors of Zhejiang" and the Chuzhou herb "Nine flavors of Lishui" authentic medicinal materials. Suichang is the core production area of "Zhejiang tetrastigma hemsleyanum". Fu Changyong , person in charge of "Medicine King Valley" and the president of Suichang County Qingmiao traditional Chinese medicine professional cooperative, told reporters that in 2011, he only planted over 10 acres of tetrastigma hemsleyanum that sold poorly. But now, by providing farmers with seedlings, planting bags and technical guidance freely, the cooperative has led the surrounding farmers to plant together, effectively revitalizing more than 3,000 acres of idle land.

The growing maturity of local tetrastigma hemsleyanum planting technology benefits from the technical guidance of Zhejiang Wuyangtang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. With local polices and financial supports, the company has completed an automated production line in Suichang with a full-capacity annual output of 70 million bottles of freeze-dried tetrastigma hemsleyanum powder for direct oral administration of traditional Chinese medicine pieces. At present, the tetrastigma hemsleyanum industry in Suichang has provided jobs for more than 310 farmers. The total income of farmers has increased by 4.24 million yuan, and the per capita annual income has increased by more than 10%.

By attracting traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, the confidence of traditional Chinese medicine growers was boosted. Furthermore, Zhejiang focuses on the integrated development of traditional Chinese medicine, promoting the in-depth integration of traditional Chinese medicine with the beauty industry, cultural tourism, and the Internet economy, to further expand its industrial advantages.

Located in Pan’an City, Zhejiang Province, the ”Jiangnan Medicine Town” is the only characteristic town based on traditional Chinese medicine industry in the province. The local government has implemented seven major categories of projects, including the construction of traditional Chinese medicinal material planting bases, intensive processing of medicinal materials, commercial circulation of medicinal materials, tourism and health care, business services, leisure and health care and supporting infrastructures, to build the town into a medicinal materials world, medical highlands, health and wellness destinations and tourist attractions.

Another example is Linqi Town in Chun'an County, which has become one of the important suppliers of traditional Chinese medicinal materials in western Zhejiang, northern Jiangxi, southern Anhui and other places by virtue of its resource advantages, which has driven the cultivation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials in surrounding towns and villages. The local government has also built the China Qiandao Lake Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine to enhance the cultural atmosphere of traditional Chinese medicine and integrate rural tourism resources in surrounding towns and villages, providing a new development model for promoting Chun'an's deep green industry, rural revitalization and beautiful town construction.

In addition, in terms of "traditional Chinese medicine + beauty", Zhejiang supports the cosmetics research and development using characteristic plant resources such as gardenia, tetrastigma hemsleyanum, whiteberry, pomelo, and bayberry as raw materials. For example, Zhejiang Changshan Hengshoutang Pomelo Fruit Co., Ltd. and the Cosmetic Inspection Institute of the Zhejiang Institute of Food and Medicine Control jointly implemented the pomelo seed oil extraction project to carry out raw material-side testing research targeting Zhejiang's characteristic cosmetic plant raw materials. Now they have successfully developed a series of cosmetics such as pomelo flavors and fragrances, pomelo care products, and etc.

A series of beauty products using pomelo as raw material. Photo by Pan Qinwen

Nowadays, the traditional Chinese medicine industry in Zhejiang is making rapid and steady progress. The medicines have turned green mountains into gold mountains, and the song of common prosperity is playing across Zhejiang. (Text by Pan Qinwen)