China's Herbal Medicine Industry Taking ShapeThe healing effect of Chinese herbal medicine has become more and more accepted in the world as an industry to sell the products is shaping in China, participants at an international forum here were told Friday.Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Drug Administration, said at the International Forum on Herbal and Vegetable Drugs, that modern technology has improved people's knowledge on the ingredients and medicinal effects of herbs. He said that drugs made of natural plants have fewer side effects, and therefore are more suitable to be developed for health protection. Although herbal medicine has a long history and pharmacological foundation in China, modern research and development technology have only been adopted in the last century to create an industry for the products. At the end of 1999, there were 107 Chinese herbal medicine producers with the annual sales of 28 varieties of herbal medicine, each amounting to as much as 100 million yuan. |
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