Pharmacist reveals secrets of ‘royal’ herb

Hanoi Times - Who are you? Trinh nu hoang cung’s flower is white streaked with violet. But the best way to distinguish the herb from other plants is by its DNA.

There was a time the mysterious herb trinh nu hoang cung was reserved for royalty. But now, thanks to the efforts of o­ne Vietnamese pharmacist, this ‘magic’ cure for common health problems is available in capsule form. Vu Thu Ha reports.

For decades a mysterious herb known as trinh nu hoang cung (royal virgin) has been coveted by those seeking a ‘magical’ cure for their ills and ailments. The plant was regarded as especially useful for longevity and curing diseased sexual organs, but now a Vietnamese scientist is unraveling the royal virgin’s secrets, to put the plant’s real medicinal qualities to better use.

Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram’s research o­n the Vietnamese variety of trinh nu hoang cung that has given hope to people suffering from enlarged prostates (benign prostatic heperplasia - BPH) and benign tumors in the uterus (fibroid uterus), two of the most common health problems for middle-aged men and women.

Dr Tram was the first scientist among many who studied the herb to succeed in transforming trinh nu hoang cung into modern capsule form, making its usage much easier and more effective.

In 2005, Crila capsules became the first-ever capsules of pure extract from the leave of trinh nu hoang cung available o­n the Vietnamese market. In 2006, the pills were granted the title of a ‘good-quality product for the community’s health’ by the Ministry of Health (MoH).

On December 25, 2007, the Viet Nam’s Women Union awarded the prestigious Kovalevskaia Prize to Tram thanks to her work o­n the herb.

After two decades of hard work o­n the herb, Tram says she has been able to fulfill a personal dream: to bring a traditional Vietnamese herb into the realm of modern medicine to serve the Vietnamese people.

The long ‘love affair’

"For a long time Viet Nam failed to modernize its traditional medicines," says Tram.

"We used these medicines in a traditional way, such as by boiling them. It is quite wasteful."

Tram says that although the traditional method is still effective to a certain extent, o­nly modern technology can effectively extract the herb’s most useful elements while discarding the rest.

With encouragement from her father, Dr Nguyen Van Truong, who is the editor-in-chief of the Viet Nam Encyclopedia, mastering such technology became Tram’s goal since she graduated from university.

Tram’s father had asked her: "Why do we have to buy so many medicines from other countries while our own country has so many medicinal herbs and pharmacists?"

It was this thought that Tram kept in mind when she began her career as a pharmacist, along with her father’s advice to focus her research o­n producing modern medicine from traditional medicinal herbs.

Tram had the chance to make breakthroughs in her work after earning a doctoral degree in chemistry in Bulgaria in 1990. Working with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, she pursued her research o­n Asian herbs.

The breakthrough came when she returned to Viet Nam o­n a field trip. During a visit to the old city of Hue, Tram came across trinh nu hoang cung thanks to a meeting with the daughter of a royal physician from the Nguyen Dynasty, who was selling tea o­n the roadside where Tram had stopped by for a rest.

The fortunate meeting marked the start of Tram’s love affair with the herb, a fascination which has lasted 18 years for the scientist.

Now Crila has earned its own brand name in the market and Tram has become the director of a centre for research, development and manufacturing of Crina pharmaceutical products under the National Phytopharma Joint-stock company (Phytopharma), its sole producer.

The centre now raises trinh nu hoang cung in a 30-ha plantation in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province. Tram recalls the long hours of hard work that she and her co-workers carried out, scouring the countryside for the right herbs, mastering the best planting techniques for the herb and finding the most suitable land for it.

"It may sound simple, but it wasn’t at all", Tram says.

Only after seemingly endless experiments all across the country did Tram and her co-workers find the most suitable "home" for their herb where they could produce the greatest amount of biologically active components used to cure diseases.

"In addition, there are several kinds of herbs which look similar to trinh nu hoang cung but don’t have the same medical properties," says Tram. "We needed to collect every sample and distinguish its DNA, which required advanced technology."

The lack of technical facilities made the procedure very difficult. As research equipment in Vietnamese laboratories were not advanced enough, Tram had to call o­n the help of foreign research institutions such as Bulgaria’s Academy of Sciences, Austria’s Academy of Sciences and the help of other Vietnamese and foreign scientists.

It took her almost eight years of shuttling back and forth from Viet Nam to Europe just to identify the groups of biologically active components among hundreds of substances in the herb.

Money was also a big problem. Sometimes Tram had to spend her own money, raising funds by selling her house or using award money from her scientific research to invest into the project.

But Tram says she never gave up o­n her quest.

"Right from the start, I firmly believed that I wouldn’t fail," she says.

"My initial research showed very positive results and as the herb originates in Viet Nam I saw the real possibility of developing our own source of materials for producing medicine."

2 in 1 pill

Since its first appearance in 2005, Crila has become a well known treatment for BPH and fibroid uterus. The plant is also regarded as special as it is effective for curing diseases in both male and female reproductive organs, which is quite unusual for an herb. Crila inherits this advantage.

In the past, royal physicians used the herb to treat both eunuchs and imperial maids with gynecological diseases.

Tram’s research has shown that Crila effectively alleviates more than 89 per cent of the symptoms of BPH, which include frequent and sometimes painful urination.

Before being mass produced, Crila was subjected to clinical trials at the National Institute of Traditional Medicine, the Institute of Traditional Medicine in HCM City and the Institute of Ageing Disorders in Hanoi. The results showed a 33-93 per cent reduction in urinary symptoms. Ninety per cent of tested patients experienced a reduction in their prostate size; among them a significant number of patients achieved a normalization of prostate size and urinary health after two months of therapy.

To ensure the quality of the capsule, Tram applies Good Agricultural Practices for Medical Plants process (GAP) – the World Health Organization’s standard in planting, harvesting and maintenance to provide clean materials, despite the higher production costs.

In October, 2007, Crila was officially recognized for treating fibroid uterus by the health ministry. Thanks to that decision, Crila became the first pill of crinum latifolium (L.) extract for fibroid uterus o­n the international market, says Tram.

Crinum latifolium (L.)’s power to fight and reduce tumors in many cases helps patients avoid surgery, which can leave behind some adverse effects o­n their health as well as a psychological impact.

Crila also comes with a much smaller price tag in comparison to other imported drugs o­n the domestic market.

For fibroid uterus patients, the cost for treatment by Crila is four times cheaper than that of imported medicine for each period of treatment, while for BPH patients, the costs are half of the price of imported medicine.

Although satisfied with her achievements, Tram says the herb’s story has not yet come to an end, as it is full potential is still yet to be discovered.

At the moment o­nly trinh nu hoang cung leaves are used to make Crila. Research is still being carried out o­n the best way to use the plant’s roots, bulbs and flowers.

Tram’s research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has pointed to other medicinal uses, as the herb can stimulate activation and development of a special blood cell which can prolong the life of laboratory animals with cancer.

That means Tram’s love affair with the ‘magical’ herb is far from over.

"Seventeen years (of research) may be a long time for a person but it is far from enough to fully understand a medicinal herb," says Tram.