According to the evaluation of the National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Vietnam is one of the countries that have leading potential in the production of herbal medicines. However, the Oriental medicine in Vietnam has not been highly evaluated because the input herbal material source has not been strictly controlled. Hence, with Crinum latifolium L. plantation at Long Thanh - Dong Nai of Thien Duoc Co., Ltd requiring GACP-WHO criterion (Good Agriculture and Collection Practices for medicinal plants as recommended by World Health Organization), we believe that herbal medicines and traditional medicines in Vietnam will gradually assert their position and brand both in Vietnam and foreign countries. Pharmacist - Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram, who has been researching, building and developing Crinum latifolium L. under GACP criterion - and also inventor of Crila capsule for benign prostatic hyperplasia and uterine fibroids shared with reporter of Capital Security newspaper on this topic.
Reporter: Under the perspective of a scientist who has nearly 20 years of research on medicinal herbs, can you tell us why businesses should apply GACP-WHO standard?
Pharmacist - Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram: Currently, in the production of herbal medicines, the Government mainly manages the output while the quality of input materials has not been controlled.
Therefore, the quality of herbal medicinal products is not high. There are 7 Crinum plants in Vietnam looking like Crinum latifolium L. plant, which identified by Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram. Since they are just different in Gene (DNA), so choosing the right Crinum latifolium L. with bioactive substances for medicine production is a big problem.
Currently on the market, many patients and manufacturers are confused this plant with white Crinum plant, which leads to the products from wrong materials affecting consumers.
Some production facilities don’t examine the inputs, so products from medicinal herbs have low quality and when turning the remedy from traditional formulation into modern one does not maintain its treatment efficacy. Realizing the importance of the inputs that guarantees the medicine’s safety, quality and efficacy, we suggest companies implement quality management of medicinal production under GACP-WHO criterion - Good Agriculture and Collection Practices. This is not just an indispensable requirement, deciding the existence and development of companies but also expressing medical ethics of medicine-makers for serving public health.
Reporter: It is reported that Crinum latifolium L. plantation of Thien Duoc Co., Ltd is the first in Vietnam complying with this criterion. How does the planting of Crinum latiflium L. require GACP- WHO criterion?
Pharmacist - Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram: Crinum latifolium L. plantation at Long Thanh - Dong Nai was built in 1999 with an area of 15 hectares and has carried out cultivation, caring and collection of medicinal materials under GACP-WHO criterion. We chose seedlings from wild plants based on genetic characteristics (DNA) of Crinum latifolium L. These plants have been studied and identified by the leading botanists of Vietnam (Prof. Dr. Sc. Do Tat Loi, Prof. Dr. Sc. Tran Cong Khanh, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Van Chi) in terms of botany of Crinum latifolium L. belonging Amaryllidaceae family.
We have selected healthy seedlings whose leaves have fully bioactive substances used as raw materials to produce Crila for benign prostatic hyperplasia and uterine fibroids. Crinum latifolium L. plantation of Thien Duoc Co., Ltd in Long Thanh - Dong Nai requires GACP-WHO criterion. This plantation has a favorable location which is 1 km away from main roads, unpolluted by crowded residential areas, not near factories, enterprises, hospitals, cemeteries, with suitable climate for the plant. The plantation uses the water meeting national technical standards - running-water quality according to the provision QCVN 01: 2009/BYT issued by the Ministry of Health. In cultivating process, no chemical fertilizers, growth stimulants and pesticides are accepted but use hands or pheromones – a synthetic substance with the same chemical structure as extract from female worm – to catch caterpillars by luring male. This helps to prevent female from fertilizing and laying eggs.
Reporter: Applying GACP criterion effectively requires enterprises not only to follow strict principles and techniques in good agriculture and collection practices but also to meet the comparative conditions of facilities and labor force that not all Vietnamese enterprises have. So, how does Thien Duoc Co., Ltd perform this combination?
Pharmacist - Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram: To perform effectively Good Agriculture and Collection Practices under GACP-WHO criterion, it’s important to control all stages of cultivation, collection and storage. To do that, we must have two conditions including infrastructure and labor force. Technicians and technical workers in agriculture and collection need to master technical process in agriculture and collection. Infrastructure must require the standards of GACP-WHO criterion. If there are good facilities but technical staffs are not good, GACP-WHO criterion cannot be implemented. Determining the importance of these two factors, our company has trained technicians and agricultural technical workers to master techniques for medicinal material cultivation under WHO’s criteria for years.
Reporter: The implementation of medicinal plant agriculture under GACP-WHO criterion and medicine production under GMP-WHO criterion will make a big difference in product reputation and quality among other enterprises producing Oriental medicines. Can consumers consider it a norm to choose a medicine?
Pharmacist - Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram: A medicine is considered to be safe, effective and high quality only when its input material source is managed, meeting the standards of GACP-WHO criterion and its factory must require GMP-WHO criterion. Crila capsule are manufactured from Crinum latifolium L. plantation under GACP-WHO criterion and the company’s factories are certified in accordance with GMP-WHO (Good Manufacture Practices), GLP (Good Laboratory Practices), and GSP (Good Storage Practices) criteria. In my opinion, to help patients choose the right products, it’s important to have propaganda programs on the differences of supplements and medicines. So that, patients can improve their knowledge, avoid confusion between medicines and supplements because drugs have treating effect while supplements just support treatment. Patients themselves also need to raise awareness about prevention and treatment. My advice is that we must use medicines to treat disease; supplements are only used for supporting treatment.
Reported by Tran Thang