Island's plants grow in medical potential

When tourists flock to Hainan to enjoy its beaches, sea breeze and tropical scenery, they might not notice some of the island's other treasures, such as its diverse array of tropical plants found on Hainan's western coastline.

Danzhou city is home to one of the world's largest reserves of tropical plants, boasting more than 47,000 species in six categories including fruit trees, medicinal herbs and local vegetables.

The time is coming for these tropical varieties to stand out, as the province starts to tap the value of its tropical herb resources to build an industry around southern Chinese medicines.

Southern Chinese medicine refers to products made from medicinal herbs that grow in the country's tropical and subtropical regions including Hainan.

According to the province's recent plan on healthcare industry development, Hainan will form an industrial cluster for southern Chinese medicine by 2025, with an annual industrial output value expected to reach 70 billion yuan ($9.81 billion).

"Hainan is home to about 4,500 species of higher-class tropical plants. Among them 3,100 are medicinal plants, with 160 rare and unique species on the national protection list, such as Chinese black cardamon, areca nuts and eaglewood," said Wang Zhunian, a researcher with the Haikou-based Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.

Wang is also the head of the southern Chinese medicine research center under the academy. He said the center has engaged in research on medicinal herbs since 2003.

"Our germplasm repository of tropical medicinal plants in Danzhou has grown to more than 2,500 species. The collection is expected to reach more than 4,000 in three years," Wang said.

Liu Guodao, deputy director of the academy, said the repository will become a world-class reserve and research base for tropical medicinal plant resources and a developing base for medicines and healthy food.

"We have developed more than 200 kinds of food and beverage products from the medicinal herbs. If these products are made and sold on a large scale, there will be huge benefits," Wang said.

Local governments have been active in engaging farmers in growing major herbal plants in Hainan, said officials with the provincial health administration.

The annual household income of Wang Guohai, a farmer in Lizou village of the Qiongzhong Li and Miao autonomous county, used to be less than 1,000 yuan before 2001. "Now every family gets rich by growing Chinese black cardamon," Wang said, adding that farmers also make money from beekeeping, with Chinese black cardamon flower honey selling well online.

Official statistics show annual output of Chinese black cardamon has increased to more than 1,700 metric tons in Hainan, with about half of the products exported overseas for medicine making and research. The plantation areas have been expanded by 10 times to more than 1,300 hectares. The target is for Chinese black cardamon plantations to surpass 33,300 hectares by 2025, according to the provincial plan.

"Scientific study has found that Chinese black cardamon has great potential in curing senile dementia. Both Chinese and overseas scientists are conducting research to develop medicines from the precious plant," said Wang, the botanist.

"Development of southern Chinese medicine means great opportunities for Chinese and overseas pharmaceutical companies," he said.

Li Wei, general manager of Hainan Jiuzhitang Pharmaceutical, said his company has spent 30 million yuan a year on medicine research since 2016. He said local institutions have developed a large number of healthcare and food products from the tropical plant resources in Hainan.

Local officials said development of the tropical herb resources will also help enrich Hainan's tourism offerings, with the construction of parks planned to demonstrate their special value and charm.

(China Daily 09/30/2019 page12)