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 Long History of Chinese Herbal Slices |
| Having thousand years of history, Traditional Chinese Medicine is an important cultural asset preceded by ancient Chinese civilization and plays an important role in maintaining human health. However, the traditional concoction standards adopted by most Chinese herb enterprises to date have become a major obstacle for the TCM industry to achieve modernization. |
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| Great Uses of Chinese Herbal Slices |
| Chinese herbal slices comprises wide varieties and various concoction methods. Thousands of Chinese herbal slices and their sources, harvest dates, concoct methods, functions & efficacy and clinical applications have been recorded to date for the treatment of many symptoms and illnesses. |
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| Worrisome Situation of Chinese Herbal Slices |
| In the recent years, underground factories have been engaged in primitive manufacturing of Chinese herbal slices with no quality assurance and control. Many peasants and vagrants have been carrying out illegal transactions involving the supply of these low quality Chinese herbal slices and this has resulted in the rise of many bogus Chinese herbal slices in the markets. These have caused detriment to the reputation of the TCM industry and brought worries to the physicians as well as the consumers. |
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| Lag in Uniform Technological Standards |
| One of the underlying problems of the technological regulations is the lack of unified concoction standards. The nation and the individual provinces have no binding authorities on the concoction standards although the concoction methods of some Chinese herbal species have been recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and most provinces have their own concoction norms. It is often paradoxical that the same crude herb has more than one concoction methods. |
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| Promising Market of Chinese Herbal Slices |
Traditional Chinese herbal slices is still a largely untapped market. In recent years, the global trend in seeking natural remedies has witnessed vast increases across the globe. World statistics have showed that sales of botanical drugs have increased over the years since 1994, and are still maintaining a steady growth. Europe, in particular, has emerged as the country with the highest increase in sales of traditional Chinese medicine, followed by the United States.
According to world statistics, the sales capacity of natural medicines in the global drugs market is expected to reach up to US$40 billion over the years from the current US$16 billion in 2000.
In China, the growth in development of Chinese medicine has been the fastest in the pharmaceutical industry. With the improvement in the standard of living and change in the concepts of medical needs, the pharmaceutical industry is expected to continue to grow rapidly.
The implementation of patent protection on medical drugs by the Patent Law of PRC has also brought about a change in the market demand. While most patented medical drugs are imported and priced more expensively compared to Chinese medicine which are manufactured locally, many consumers are willing to accept Chinese medicine as an alternative remedy. On the same note, the use of modern technology has enhanced the quality and improved the efficacy of Chinese medicine which could now easily be an alternative, if not replacing the shortages of chemical drugs. Together with the increase in the modernization of Traditional Chinese medicine, we believe that the export volume of Chinese proprietary medicine and Chinese herbal extracts would experience an exponential growth in the very near future. |
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