CHINA DAILY Wednesday, April 19, 2017 CHINA 9

Healthcare Traditional medicine heads into the mainstream Practitioners of ancient herbal treatments will soon be allowed to register with local authorities. Xu Wei and Yang Jun report from Tongren and the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Guizhou province.

ang Zengshi’s house is full of silk banners that have been pre­ sented to him by gratefulW patients; some hang on the walls of his home, while others have been spread casually on the floor. The practitioner of Miao tradi­ tional herbal medicine treats more than 30 patients a day at his clinic, and he often travels to other parts of the country to provide treatment. “Some people only come to me when the hospital doctors say they are doomed, but I never refuse to see them,” said the member of the Miao ethnic group, from Wengtong, a vil­ lage in Leishan county, Guizhou province. Wang’s four­story complex is equipped with hospital beds, a phar­ macy and a consulting room filled A vendor sells medicinal herbs at a market in Kaili city in Guizhou province. LIAN QIANYU / XINHUA with patients’ files. Even though the 59­year­old dropped out of primary school after the third grade, his area of expertise Excessive exploitation results in herb species dying off is the treatment of bone fractures and snakebites. However, he claims he can also provide relief from, or The rise in the popularity of tradi­ tain herbs, further endangering a num­ Whenever Yang Shaochen, a practi­ even cure, a range of ailments tional Miao herbal medicine has led to ber of species. tioner of Dong traditional medicine in including cancer and infertility. the overexploitation of wild herbs in “Miao herbal medicine would not Kaili, a city in the province, buys “Patients come all the way to see some parts of Guizhou province, exist without these herbs. If they die herbs from farmers, he always urges me, so I have an obligation to look according to many practitioners. off it would mean the loss of entire them to leave some plants in the after them,” he said, referring to the Long Guangqiao, vice­dean of the treatment methods,”he said. ground. difficulty of reaching the village, People’s Hospital in Songtao, a county Long has noticed that a number of Every year,he spends about 30,000 deep in Leigong Mountain and only in the province, owns a company that species are now rarely found in Song­ to 50,000 yuan ($4,360 to $7,262) on accessible to the outside world by a makes Miao herbal medicine. He said tao, but some practitioners still try to medicinal herbs, and he knows many narrow, winding cement road. the business has started cultivating a purchase wild herbs because they farmers who rely on gathering and sell­ Last year, Wang’s clinic generated number of herbs because human have stronger curative effects than ing the plants to earn a living. income of 2 million yuan activity means many are now endan­ domestically grown plants. “I always advise them to leave some ($290,000), thanks to the rising gered. “As a doctor,the most painful thing plants so there will be enough for the popularity of traditional Miao medi­ He said high demand has pushed up is discovering that you know how to next season,”he said. cine and treatment methods. The prices, which has spurred farmers to treat an illness, but you don’t have the phenomenon is noticeable across pick even greater quantities of moun­ right kind of medicine to do so,”he said. XUWEIANDYANGJUN the province. Workers in Tongren, Guizhou, plant herbs for use by traditional practitioners. In 2015, the total sales value of PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Miao herbal medicine in Guizhou was 20 billion yuan, surpassing the combined figures for traditional flights and hotels so that I can go and the administration office of Miao clinics by allowing practitioners to their therapies with people other Tibetan, Mongolian and Uygur see them in their homes,”he said. herbal medicine at the Kaili Hospi­ simply register with local health than members of their own fami­ treatments, according to figures The growth of social media has tal of Chinese Medicine in Guizhou. authorities, instead of obtaining lies makes it difficult to pass on from the Guizhou Department of also enabled him to conduct long­ According to Ma, unlike modern official approval, he added. knowledge. “Many practitioners Science and Technology. Some practitioners distance consultations before send­ Western treatments or traditional are also illiterate, which means In the same year, a guideline ing herbal medicines to patients via Chinese medicines, Miao herbal Building trust they cannot write down their accu­ issued by the provincial govern­ work behind closed courier services. medicine does not have a systematic Long Guangqiao, vice­dean of the mulated experience in books,” he ment pledged to accelerate the Last year, Wang saw more than method of evaluating practitioners. People’s Hospital in Songtao, a added. development of industries related doors, and some 3,000 patients, and more than 40 “But the practitioners have proven county in Guizhou, who also practic­ Decades ago, the Miao people to Miao herbal medicine and would rather see percent of the consultations were track records of treating certain ill­ es Miao herbal medicine, said the used herbal medicines to help peo­ encourage the construction of new conducted on WeChat. nesses, and the curative effects are fact that many people regard herbal ple, rather than as a way of making a treatment centers in three nearby their knowledge lost almost immediate,”he said. treatments as a last resort indicates living, which is why many practi­ prefectures and in Guiyang, the Changes ahead The situation may change on July a lack of trust. tioners’ children had little interest provincial capital. than passed down to Despite the growing popularity of 1, when the country’s first law relat­ He decided to stay in his position in learning about the treatments. Toenable a larger number of Miao traditional Miao remedies, many ed to traditional Chinese medicine, as vice­dean of the hospital to help For example, in the 1950s, there herbal medicines to gain acceptance people outside their practitioners said the lack of certifi­ passed by the top legislature in build trust among patients, who he were 900 traditional practitioners as legal treatments, the provincial cation and procedures to check cre­ December. It will allow traditional treats with traditional Miao herbal in Songtao, but now there are only government is working to have more own family.” dentials mean the sector is practitioners to take exams orga­ methods. about 100, Long said. of them included in the Chinese vulnerable to fraud, which could nized by provincial­level TCM “Being a practitioner is like Despite having received his own Pharmacopoeia, a list of approved Long Guangqiao, tarnish its image. authorities that will focus on practi­ obtaining a driver’s license,” said training from about 15 experts, he medicines, the guideline said. vice­dean of the Moreover,the fact that many prac­ cal skills and treatment outcomes. Wang, the Miao practitioner. “You was spurned by a number of practi­ Lin Ruichao, dean of the School of People’s Hospital titioners live deep in the mountains They will also need to obtain recom­ have to be precise in each of the tioners he had asked to share their Chinese Materia Medica at Beijing in Songtao county and have received little formal edu­ mendations from two certified prac­ treatment procedures and remem­ therapies. University of Chinese Medicine, said cation makes it difficult for the titioners. ber the exact times the herbs are “Some practitioners work behind 155 Miao medicines have already authoritiestooverseetheiractivities. Like some TCM practitioners, ready to treat illnesses.” closed doors, and some would rath­ been approved for use by the China Under Chinese law, doctors are many Miao herbal experts learned Accumulating experience through er see their knowledge lost than Food and Drug Administration. Miao medicines. only allowed to treat patients after their skills from a local teacher,rath­ consultation with patients is also passed down to people outside their The inclusion of more Miao medi­ Last year, Guizhou Bailing Group they have passed the relevant er than through standard educa­ crucial: “A doctor’s expertise is pro­ own family,”he said. cines in the pharmacopoeia would Pharmaceutical, one of the largest exams, and they must also obtain tional methods. vided by their patients, and that’s further increase the sector’s influ­ companies in the sector, registered licenses from local health authori­ The law will allow them to obtain especially true for us.” Contact the writers at ence, but local businesses still need total assets of nearly 4 billion yuan, ties to treat patients in their juris­ licenses to practice traditional Chi­ He said about 1,700 kinds of herbs [email protected] to improve their products, he told a according to its third­quarter dictions. nese medicine, including Miao that can be used as medicines are forum in July. report. “Many herbal practitioners have herbal medicine, and enter the found in his home region, and the Wang’s growing reputation on the treated patients in their villages for mainstream, according to Deng curative effect of each herb differs Online Growing potential internet and in media reports has decades, and they have won the Yong, a legal researcher at Beijing greatly according to the different A number of publicly listed com­ resulted in a rise in patients from trust of people from near and far. University of Chinese Medicine. growth periods. Scan this code to panies in Guizhou are now devoted around China. However, they have never been The changes will also make it eas­ Long said the fact that many watch a video. to the research and production of “Some patients even help me book licensed,” said Ma Jun, a doctor at ier to open individual practices and practitioners are unwilling to share Modern diagnosis complements ancient therapies

By XU WEI and YANG JUN to aid diagnosis. He also uses modern medical the­ ditional Miao herbal medicine in background, so he is unable to give “It is important for us to be ory as part of his treatment and has Guizhou’s Leishan county, has sent the scientific names of many of the Many practitioners of traditional informed by modern technologies,” studied the human body to improve two of his children to medical herbs he uses every day, and he herbal medicine in Guizhou province said the member of the Dong ethnic his services. school. hopes his son and daughter will be combinetheirtherapieswithmodern group. Yang’swife, who graduated from a He has two daughters and a son, able to combine the knowledge they methods of diagnosis as they seek to He added that comparisons of regular medical school, has helped so he decided to send one of the girls will gain from him with modern further improve the treatments they scan results before and after his ther­ deepen her husband’s knowledge of and the boy to study Western medi­ medicine to better treat their future offer. apies are applied often help patients gynecology. cine. patients. Before he prescribes herbal medi­ to realize that treatment works: for Yang uses the internet for consul­ “Even though Western medical “It takes a long time to learn about cine, Yang Shaochen, a practitioner example, if he treats a cancer patient tations with patients, asking them theories sometimes conflict with our all the herbs used in Miao medicine. oftraditionalDongmedicineinKaili, and a subsequent scan shows that to send photos of their symptoms as practices, it is important to learn I have to teach the children from Yang Shaochen conducts a a city in the province, asks patients to the tumor has reduced in size, or a diagnostic aid. about the human body,”he said. scratch and make sure they get the consultation via his smartphone. provide the results of hospital scans even disappeared completely. Wang Zengshi, who practices tra­ Wang has a poor educational details right,”he said. YANG JUN / CHINA DAILY