Attending the conference of scientific and technological development in enterprises, I am impressed by Dr. Tram’s sayings ‘The Vietnamese us are so intelligent, not less than the Jewish’. Despite understanding it’s just an unbalanced comparison, I can realize behind that is a creative mind and extraordinary effort of a scientist who dares to throw herself in danger spot to turn an impossible into possible.

Doing scientific research from the age of 20s

It’s more exact to call Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram – Director of Thien Duoc Co., Ltd (Tan Uyen) a scientist rather than a businesswoman. At the age of 24, she was known in scientific circles after succeeding in extracting the essential oil from Coleus Aromaticus Benth Labiatae to make children cough syrup with good treatment efficacy. After that, she was doing research to defend her doctoral thesis in Bulgaria, becoming an assistant professor of Bulgarian Institute of Sciences. Back to her country, she continues her own dream and passion for Vietnamese medicinal herbs. In 1990 during her difficult journey of searching natural medicinal herbs that can treat tumors, fate had brought her to Crinum latifolium L. plant in Hue. She has studied the effects of this precious plant in the last 20 years.

It was not until 2005 after so many obstacles, her brainchild - Crila capsule, after 15-year-research of this energetic female was officially approved for circulation by the Ministry of Health with registration number VNB-3391-05. According to the results of scientific research in accordance with Regulation 371 of the Ministry of Health, Crila capsule has proved that its treatment efficacy for benign prostatic hyperplasia at 89.18% and for uterine fibroids at 79.5%. The good news is that thanks to this capsule, patients with these 2 diseases can avoid surgery with low-price treatment cost compared with foreign medicines.

Her pride

From the start to this today success, the journey has experienced many obstacles such as deficient research materials of Crinum latifolium L. but experiences by words of mouth, financial difficulties and scientists’ suspicion of this plant’s effects, etc. It seemed that these big challenges can’t be overcome. However, Dr. Tram and her co-workers survived everything thanks to their will, effort and also intelligence. Their research work on Crinum latifolium L. plant has been appreciated by the Council of Science with high practicability, suitable for real situation, then granted intellectual property certificate.

Not only winning domestic awards, this research work also wins some international prizes including Kovalevskaya Award 2007 – named after a Russian female mathematician for excellent female scientist in research and application of science in real life, award from an American couple founded in 1985. In 2010, Healing Quest – a reputed American channel specializing in health came to Vietnam to make a report of Dr. Tram and her product from Crinum latifolium L., then broadcasted throughout the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. catching a lot of attention of scientific circles and audiences all over the world.  

No science, no breakthrough

This is the first time a Vietnamese herbal medicine has been accepted and highly evaluated by American market. This showed that the sayings of Dr. Tram ‘The Vietnamese us are so intelligent, not less than the Jewish’ is really well-founded, not just a comparison.

Speaking of the conquer of international market, Dr. Tram said that her product is expanding to the US – a fastidious market. If it can compete in America, it’s not too difficult to enter other market. To achieve that success, Dr. Tram affirmed ‘If weren’t for science and technology, we couldn’t innovate and create highly competitive products on the market. Among thousands of medicinal plants in Vietnam, it’s uneasy to choose the right one against benign or malignant tumors. We have to use our own capital from scientific research to build the today estate. First in the form of tea, then build a capsule-manufaturing factory.

In spite of many successful research works, Dr. Tram still keeps on studying to finish the national-level key project ‘Accomplishment of the production technology process of Crila® forte for exportation’. Besides, her company also cooperates with Bulgaria to study the immunostimulative effect against cancer of Crinum latifolium L. extract.

Entering the age of 60s, in hot April days, Dr. Tram still controls ceaselessly the 20-ha-plantation under GACP-WHO in Long Thanh – Dong Nai in person. With regard to creating the source of materials, Dr. shared ‘To get standard medicinal materials, we should research from the soil, harvest season and collection method. If not well-studied, the obtained materials can’t meet the standards as our expectation. In science, it’s hard to succeed if being discouraged’.