China's plant extract industry calls for high quality export

The domestic plant extract products such as paclitaxel, camptothecin and lycophylline a can't meet the order quantity of foreign businessmen because of the shortage of supply, while some "new resource plant extract products" such as Lycium barbarum, Rhodiola, Ganoderma lucidum, angelica and pueraria (they are generally considered as "new resource plant extract" products in western countries) become the hot commodities frequently visited by foreign businessmen However, although the prospect is worth looking forward to, the export added value of plant extracts in China is still relatively low at present, such as artemisinin, Ginkgo biloba extract, solanesol, etc., because of the backward purification technology and the low quality of export products, profits and market share are often lost, etc., especially in Japan, South Korea and other Asian neighboring countries where the plant extraction industry is booming today, the export of the plant extracts is still The situation clearly needs reflection Artemisinin: production and marketing imbalance, export licensing system is in the works Artemisinin has become the main antimalarial drug designated by the World Health Organization for use in malaria epidemic areas in Africa, because it is superior to chloroquine and pyrimethamine, which have been used for many years in inhibiting the reproduction of Plasmodium So far, there is no antimalarial drug from other plant sources (except quinine) to replace its market position In 2004, the World Health Organization published a global market analysis report on antimalarial drugs According to the prospect described in the report, according to the prediction that there were 350 million people suffering from malaria at that time, the total demand of artemisinin in the world will reach 300 tons by 2010, and the sales volume of preparations will reach more than 1.5 billion US dollars As a result, there is a upsurge of planting Artemisia annua in Southwest China But in fact, in the following years, the demand for artemisinin APIs in the international market was not as high as the who predicted Before 2004, there were less than 10 artemisinin extraction plants in China, and the annual output of artemisinin was only 18 tons Under the stimulation of over optimistic prediction of artemisinin, the production of artemisinin in China is in a rush By the end of 2006, there were nearly 100 artemisinin extraction plants in China, producing nearly 80 tons of crude artemisinin Such a huge production cannot be digested at home and can only be exported overseas The right to sell artemisinin preparations is almost in the hands of Novartis, Switzerland China can only export crude artemisinin APIs at a low price In 2004, the export price of artemisinin API was still 7000 yuan per kilogram, and by the end of 2007, it had plummeted to only 1300 yuan per kilogram, which made many artemisinin manufacturers suffer heavy losses And because the enterprise stops buying, a lot of Artemisia annua even rotted in the ground It is reported that the reason why China's artemisinin export is blocked is not because of the poor quality of China's products, but because of the impact of low-cost artemisinin exports from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and other African countries such as Kenya, which are also vigorously cultivating artemisinin and extracting artemisinin Nevertheless, artemisinin, as the only natural antimalarial drug in the international market, has a bright market prospect China's only Guilin South pharmaceutical company approved by who to have the qualification of independent export of artemisinin preparations Last year, it exported about 15 million US dollars of artemisinin tablets It is expected that the number of artemisinin tablets exported by Guilin South pharmaceutical company will exceed last year In view of the current situation that domestic manufacturers of artemisinin APIs are competing to reduce the price of artemisinin for export, the Ministry of Commerce of China is jointly working with the chamber of Commerce for the import and export of pharmaceutical and health products to formulate the "measures for the export management of artemisinin products" It has been revealed that in the future, the Ministry of Commerce will follow the export license system of ephedrine and licorice extracts for artemisinin export, and only the enterprises with license can export artemisinin APIs It is believed that through effective control measures, the situation of interest damage caused by the export of artemisinin can be recovered, so as to promote the export of artemisinin raw materials to a healthy and orderly way Hypericin: Rejuvenate "the second spring" It has the potential that taxol hypericin is included in the European Herbal Pharmacopoeia because of its excellent antidepressant effect Its preparation has an excellent market in the European market, with an annual sales volume of more than 300 million US dollars The hypericin market in the United States is relatively small, with annual sales of only $20 million ~3000 million However, the world-wide outbreak of avian influenza in 2004 has once again attracted the attention of hypericin At that time, only the "Tamiflu" produced by Roche, Switzerland, was able to effectively treat avian influenza, but the price of Tamiflu was too expensive, which was not suitable for the situation of a large number of low-income people in China Therefore, domestic research institutions of traditional Chinese medicine began to look for new anti avian influenza drugs from traditional Chinese medicine, and finally found that hypericin, one of the extracts of Hypericum perforatum, had a strong inhibitory effect on H5N1, the main cause of avian influenza System function After the news spread abroad, it immediately aroused the strong interest of the United States and other developed countries Since 2005, China's hypericin has been exported first to Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and other Asian countries that are seriously affected by the avian influenza epidemic, and then to Japan and the United States It is reported that the average price of crude non pharmaceutical grade hypericin exported by China is 120 yuan per kilogram In fact, the main producing area of hypericin is not in China but in Europe, where there are many large-scale cultivation bases of Hypericum perforatum After the discovery of new uses of hypericin for anti avian influenza in China, European hypericin manufacturers have become interested in this old product of plant extract It is reported that many European pharmaceutical research institutions have planned to cooperate with Chinese traditional medicine research departments to jointly carry out the research on human drugs of hypericin for anti avian influenza Due to the promising prospect of hypericin international market, southwest and Northwest China, including Shaanxi, Sichuan and other provinces, are vigorously developing the cultivation of Hypericum perforatum, which is regarded as one of the means to help local farmers get rid of poverty and become rich For example, the annual production of hypericin API in the hypericin production base invested and constructed by Sichuan Baoguang group has reached 100 tons, and the first batch of hypericin API exported to Europe in line with EU standards has been successfully exported to Germany in 2007 It is estimated that the total production of hypericin in China has reached 500-600 tons Once the new use of hypericin against avian influenza has been recognized by the world, it will replace paclitaxel and become the fastest growing plant extract product in China Wolfberry: non toxic beauty appeal, international orders fly like snow in the whole 20th century, the Westerners basically know nothing about wolfberry It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that Chinese wolfberry attracted the attention of European and American people In particular, the manufacturer hired celebrities such as singer Madonna and famous model Kate Moss as product spokesmen to introduce the benefits of eating Chinese wolfberry juice on TV, making it one of the best-selling health care products in the European and American markets Therefore, the export volume of Chinese wolfberry increased greatly In 2006, China exported 4739 tons of dried Lycium barbarum fruit, and more than 5000 tons of concentrated Lycium barbarum juice were exported to European and American markets, which brought real economic benefits to farmers in Ningxia and other major Lycium producing areas In recent years, more and more European and American merchants have visited Ningxia wolfberry production area and added orders for dried or original wolfberry juice Thus, farmers in Ningxia and other places are motivated to expand the cultivation of Lycium barbarum It is estimated that the export volume of Chinese wolfberry will reach 8000 tons this year, and a considerable amount of wolfberry concentrated juice will be exported to overseas markets American FDA and British agricultural food authorities have agreed to define Chinese wolfberry as a "new resource food", and no toxic report has been found so far In the next few years, Chinese wolfberry is expected to become a well-known new plant extract product in the European and American markets after Ginkgo biloba extract Solanesol: "new expensive" is not expensive, and the new technology is expected to turn the tide The rise of solanesol is just over ten years, but it has become one of the best-selling plant extracts in the international market Solanesol is a key intermediate for the synthesis of a variety of important health care drugs, such as coenzyme Q10, vitamin K2, etc., especially coenzyme Q10 has the clinical effect of anti acute myocardial infarction and anti viral hepatitis The best-selling of Solanesol in the international market has driven the development of solanesol Tight At present, many new drugs have been developed abroad, such as anti cardiovascular disease, anti-cancer and treatment of gastric ulcer Since 2005, solanesol has been increasing rapidly in the international plant extract market It is estimated that the total demand for high-purity solanesol in the world is about 5000 tons In fact, the solanesol from tobacco leaves is the crude solanesol with very low content It must be processed by special equipment to remove impurities and increase the purity to more than 90% before it can be used as the raw material for the synthesis of coenzyme Q10 or vitamin K2 In recent years, China exports about 3000 tons of 20% crude solanesol every year, the export price is only 70000-90000 US dollars per ton, while the average price of high-purity solanesol in the international market is more than 480000 US dollars per ton So it seems that the export of crude solanesol is not worth the loss In recent years, solanesol is very popular in the international market How many products are basically sold? Japanese, American and other western manufacturers have imported a large number of crude solanesol from China After finishing it in China, it will be sold to the international market or even to China The price difference is staggering It's gratifying to learn that researchers of colleges and universities headed by Nanjing Normal University have invented a new process of refining crude solanesol into high-purity solanesol for medicine In the next few years, it's expected to export high-purity solanesol products with independent intellectual property rights, so as to break the situation that Japan and the United States monopolize the international high-purity solanesol market At that time, cheap solanesol will be used in China The situation of crude alcohol exports in exchange for foreign exchange will be completely changed Licorice extract: it can be used for both medicine and food The sales volume of licorice extract (mainly composed of glycyrrhizic acid) has been upgraded year by year It is a natural edible sweetener popular in the food industry of European and American countries It is widely used in food and daily chemical products In addition, western researchers have found that glycyrrhizic acid has many new pharmacological effects in the past 10 years, such as anti hepatitis virus, liver protection, treatment of depression, anti gastric ulcer and so on Many new Antihepatitis drugs based on Glycyrrhizic acid derivatives have been developed in China and Japan The pharmacological action of glycyrrhizic acid and its advantages of no toxic and side effects make it one of the plant extract products in short supply in the international market In 2004, the total sales volume of glycyrrhizic acid in the world was only US $230 million, which increased to more than US $400 million in 2006 and exceeded US $500 million last year However, due to farmers in Northwest China's wild exploitation of local Licorice Resources, licorice resources are exhausted Today, the wild licorice resources are less than 1 / 4 of those in the 1950s Although artificial cultivation of Glycyrrhiza has been carried out in Xinjiang, northeast and other provinces, but the growth of Glycyrrhiza is very slow, so in the past few years, the annual export volume of Glycyrrhiza extract powder in China has hovered between 3500-4000 tons At the same time, neighboring countries such as India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are also vigorously developing glycyrrhizic acid export It is estimated that the total export volume of glycyrrhizic acid extract in these countries has exceeded 3000 tons, basically equivalent to China However, it is understood that the licorice planted in India and other countries is not the same variety as that planted in China, and there is a certain gap in quality European and American businessmen are more confident in the products exported from China According to U.S Customs data, 64.75% of the imported licorice extracts from the United States in 2007 were Chinese products, while those from other countries only accounted for the total imports of licorice extracts