Qi Zheng Tibetan Medicine’s Lei Jufang: Focusing on Enhancing the Entire Industrial Chain of Tibetan Medicine

　　As a major player in ethnic medicine, Tibetan medicine is accelerating its pace toward becoming more widely accessible to the general public.

　　However, while the Tibetan medicine industry is booming, there has been a trend of exploitative extraction of certain Tibetan medicinal resources, leading to the gradual depletion and even near extinction of some medicinal resources. Moreover, domestic efforts to protect Tibetan medicinal resources remain extremely weak; there is currently no dedicated institution for the protection of Tibetan medicines nor any designated protected areas for Tibetan medicinal resources.

　　Lei Jufang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairwoman of Qizheng Tibetan Medicine, told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that the Tibetan medicine industry currently faces numerous challenges, including insufficient efforts in resource conservation, which pose difficulties for sustainable development; a lack of innovation in Tibetan medicine products, leading to serious obsolescence; and prominent issues regarding quality standards for Tibetan medicinal materials and finished formulations, all of which are hindering the modernization of Tibetan medicine. Therefore, it is now imperative to promptly enhance the standardization and regularization of the Tibetan medicine industry—from its very origins right through to its end consumers.

　　Source: Establish a Tibetan Medicine Resource Conservation Zone

　　In recent years, China's Tibetan medicine industry has undergone a transformative shift. According to official data, after more than 30 years of industrial development, Qinghai Province now boasts over 20 modern Tibetan medicine manufacturing enterprises, with annual output value exceeding 3 billion yuan.

　　In the Tibet region, rich in Tibetan medicinal resources, there are currently 21 modern Tibetan medicine production enterprises. In 2015, the annual output value of Tibetan medicine enterprises reached 1.45 billion yuan. Surveys indicate that Tibet boasts a total of 2,436 Tibetan medicinal resources, including 2,172 plant species, 214 animal species, and 50 mineral species.

　　However, Chen Shilin, director of the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told reporters that due to a lack of protection, roughly 20% of the world’s medicinal plants are now either endangered or already extinct. The consequence of this is that each extinction of a medicinal plant will also trigger the extinction of about 10 to 20 species from the associated and symbiotic plant communities, resulting in extremely serious impacts.

　　“Right now, many regions are developing Tibetan medicine, but there aren’t yet many enterprises that have truly established cultivated medicinal herb bases. Instead, many companies still rely on wild resources for their Tibetan medicine supplies. This could lead to the extinction or endangerment of numerous Tibetan medicinal herb species in the future. Once these Tibetan medicinal herb resources are lost, we’ll lack the necessary resources for subsequent efforts such as variety improvement and genetic research, making it impossible to further develop and pass down Tibetan medicine,” said Chen Shilin.

　　Miao Jianhua, director of the Guangxi Medicinal Plant Garden, who has conducted numerous field investigations in Tibetan areas, deeply agrees with this view. “The most serious instances of exploitative harvesting involve species such as Cordyceps sinensis and Rhodiola rosea. If Rhodiola rosea were to be artificially propagated, it would take up to six years to cultivate. Currently, many obstacles in its cultivation and propagation remain unresolved, so it still relies on natural growth in the wild. The environment for Rhodiola rosea production is typically a patch of Rhodiola rosea growing in the mountains; once that patch is dug up, the Rhodiola rosea in that area becomes extinct—this is precisely unregulated, unplanned harvesting,” he said.

　　In response, Lei Jufang stated that a Tibetan medicinal resource conservation zone centered on Tibet should be established and included in the national “13th Five-Year Plan” major project database for the protection and development of Chinese medicinal materials. Specifically, this would encompass four key initiatives: a wild Tibetan medicinal herb conservation project, a high-quality Tibetan medicinal herb production base project, a Tibetan medicine cultural preservation project, and a Tibetan medicine innovation (center) project.

　　“By establishing Tibetan medicine resource conservation areas, enhancing our capacity for research and development of Tibetan medicine resources, promoting the cultivation and protection of wild and semi-wild Tibetan medicinal herbs, and simultaneously advancing large-scale, standardized cultivation, we can make effective and rational use of Tibetan medicine resources, reduce the overexploitation of precious wild resources, minimize human-induced environmental damage, and create conditions for both natural self-recovery and human-assisted ecological restoration,” said Lei Jufang.

　　Regarding financial investment, Lei Jufang did not elaborate further. However, Miao Jianhua told reporters that the core area of the Tibetan medicine resource conservation zone should cover more than 3,000 mu, with a surrounding buffer zone spanning between 30,000 and 40,000 mu. Initially, the focus will be on protecting the existing medicinal plant resources in the local core area—particularly those that have been heavily exploited or severely damaged, such as Salvia miltiorrhiza, which is used extensively and has suffered significant degradation.

　　“Apart from the fact that cultivating certain medicinal plants takes relatively little time, even ten years is a short period when it comes to successfully establishing a medicinal plant cultivation program. Some species require two generations—moving from wild to cultivated, and then further developing them into a market-oriented system that’s both profitable and sustainable. That’s why the state must have a well-planned strategy in this area and work together with social forces to build and strengthen this conservation system,” Lei Jufang added.

　　Middle and Backend: Enhancing Quality Standards for Tibetan Medicine

　　In addition to the issue of protecting the origins of Tibetan medicinal materials, although China’s Tibetan medicine industry has developed to the point where more than 200 Tibetan proprietary formulations have been incorporated into national standards, Tibetan medicine standards still face significant challenges. These challenges are particularly evident in inconsistencies in the sources of raw medicinal materials, errors in the translation of drug names, primary therapeutic functions, and dosage instructions; duplication or omission of ingredients in established formulation prescriptions; non-standardized nomenclature of medicinal materials; and problems related to prescription writing, processing techniques, and identification methods in Tibetan medicine.

　　Feng Ping, Vice President and Board Secretary of Qizheng Tibetan Medicine, told reporters: “The processing system of Tibetan medicinal materials has a distinctive feature: it doesn’t just stay at the plant level; rather, it also leverages the properties of minerals to treat diseases—for example, by employing unique processing methods to transform minerals into potent therapeutic remedies. As a result, Tibetan medicine demonstrates remarkable efficacy in the treatment of certain serious and incurable diseases.”

　　Therefore, the preparation of Tibetan medicinal formulations is critically important, and the effectiveness of Tibetan herbal processing directly affects the quality of the finished products. However, currently, the Tibetan medicine industry lacks a nationally unified standard for processing techniques; instead, individual enterprises and medical institutions each follow their own set of standards and regulations, making it difficult to ensure consistent quality across different formulations. Even more importantly, in Tibetan medicine’s processing procedures, heavy metals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, and mercury can be safely incorporated into medicinal preparations. Without standardized processing guidelines, small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturers are prone to encountering drug safety and quality issues.

　　“The theoretical system of Tibetan medicine, its preparation techniques, the inheritance of its medicinal practices, and the preservation of its herbal resources are all remarkably comprehensive. However, the industry itself is still in its early stages of development and maturation. Tibetan medicine’s origins lagged behind those of traditional Chinese medicine by several decades, so its level of industrialization remains relatively late. Currently, Tibetan medicine does have industry standards, but these standards will need further enhancement as times evolve,” said Feng Ping.

　　In this regard, Lei Jufang believes that it is necessary to enhance the quality standards of Tibetan medicine products by applying modern quality control technologies and methods, ensuring they meet the regulatory requirements of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. At the same time, it is crucial to promptly establish quality standards for medicinal materials that reflect the unique characteristics of Tibetan medicine, and then promote the elevation of local standards to national standards.

　　On the other hand, through the Tibetan medicinal product standards, we will reorganize the drug testing institutes and enterprises in various Tibetan regions to carry out extensive efforts to raise the standards for Tibetan medicines, and promptly publish the quality standards that have already been finalized.

　　The standardized processing specifications for raw medicinal materials are led by the Tibet Autonomous Region, with participation from various provincial and regional authorities. These authorities will uniformly standardize the raw medicinal materials covered by the nationally issued standards, in accordance with the requirements of traditional Tibetan medicine processing specifications, and will also develop quality standards for processed products. On the basis of formulating local standards, efforts will be made to elevate these standards to national standards, serving as a reference for future processing of Tibetan medicinal products.

　　“In 2007, some ancient traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions were exempted from clinical trials. However, up until now, we still don’t have any classic or ancient prescriptions that have been approved for public use without undergoing clinical trials—because the country has not yet established a systematic framework for identifying and evaluating such classic prescriptions. Therefore, in the future, there’s still room for policy flexibility in this area,” Lei Jufang further pointed out.

　　Reporting media: 21st Century Business Herald

　　Report link: http://epaper.21jingji.com/html/2016-03/08/content_33904.htm