Businessman Ngo Duc Phuong: "Traditional medicine is the treasure of Vietnamese people"

The journey to preserve Vietnam's precious medicinal herbs is still arduous, but with his passion and desire to develop the domestic medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong is determined not to stop. He said that traditional medicine is the treasure of the Vietnamese people.

Businessman Ngo Duc Phuong, Professional Director of Chan Duoc Joint Stock Company.

Passionate and committed to medicinal herbs

Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong was born into a family with a tradition of practicing medicine in Nghe An . His father was a physician and his mother was a nurse, so from a young age, Ngo Duc Phuong was passionate about medicinal plants and later studied biology. After graduating from university, he worked at the Institute of Medicinal Materials.

Sharing with us about his journey with traditional medicine, Dr. Phuong said that to satisfy his passion for finding information about medicinal plants in different regions and ethnic groups, he has visited almost every province and city in the country. Many trips lasted up to a month, just to know how the species grows, and what climate and soil it is suitable for.

“As soon as I heard about the medicine, I immediately set out, even if I had to eat in the forest and sleep in the bush. Traditional medicine is like a treasure trove, always opening up miracles for me,” said Dr. Phuong.

In the process of learning about medicinal herbs, in addition to accumulating knowledge and experience, he has had the opportunity to experience, travel everywhere, and meet many people, thereby understanding more about the culture and life of the people. Not only knowing more about the reserves, distribution and current status of medicinal plants in each locality, he also learned a lot of knowledge from the people and traditional healers about the uses of medicinal plants and remedies.

In 2010, his passion for medicinal herbs had to be put aside due to his family's financial situation. He took a different path and became the Director of a company specializing in genetic testing services. Despite his busy schedule, whenever a former colleague called to inform him of a strange medicinal plant, he would immediately go there to investigate, then rush back to work.

In 2014, he decided to quit his high-paying job to return to the arduous field of herbal medicine. Recalling this period, Dr. Phuong said: “At that time, I simply thought of quitting my job to return to my passion. Since then, I have loved my job more and more, because herbal medicine and herbal medicine bring many benefits to the community. Sometimes, I feel that choosing to stick with herbal medicine is a matter of fate.”

Witnessing Mr. Phuong's passion and attachment to medicinal herbs and plants over the years, people in the profession call him "Medicinal Phuong".

According to Dr. Phuong, the Vietnamese ethnic community has a lot of valuable experience in using available herbs and plants as medicine to treat diseases and take care of health. That resource includes a large number of species distributed throughout the country, providing tons of medicinal herbs each year to serve domestic and export needs, bringing high economic value.

However, due to various reasons, the natural distribution of many medicinal plants has been affected and is seriously declining. Many medicinal plants that could previously be harvested naturally in large quantities are now very limited. Many places have had to plant to preserve valuable varieties and proactively source supplies.

This is also part of the reason that motivated him to build a medicinal herb garden on the wasteland in Ba Vi ( Hanoi ) in 2018. Up to now, this medicinal herb garden has more than 600 species, including many precious medicinal plants that he brought back from all over the country. The huge source of medicinal herbs that Dr. Phuong has is the result of a long and arduous journey.

Not only passionate about collecting precious medicinal plants, with his experience, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong has supported people in many localities, especially ethnic minority areas, to exploit medicinal plants sustainably, collect and process them according to standards to sell at high prices...

Concerns with clean medicinal herbs

People in the industry call you "the jungle doctor", so how do you spend time with your family?

"I have very little time for my family, because my research and business take up all my time. I always feel guilty towards my wife and children, but there is no other way". It seems that he has no free time to pursue other passions? "I have almost no other interests than learning about herbal medicine". So is his life unbalanced? "I find joy and happiness in herbal medicine and happiness in my contributions".

Over the past 20 years, from the steps into the forest or down to the sea to explore Vietnam's medicinal treasure, search for new herbs to make medicine, preserve the genetic resources of precious herbs in nature, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong realized the truth that Vietnam's natural herbal treasure is on the brink of extinction.

“Once ranked second in the world in biodiversity with more than 12,000 plant species, of which more than 5,000 species can be used as medicine, especially many extremely rare endemic plants found only in Vietnam such as Ngoc Linh ginseng, Northern vegetarian..., but we have to face a paradox: 90% of medicinal herbs are imported from abroad, most of which have been proven to be 'medicinal waste' lacking active ingredients", Dr. Phuong pondered.

He was heartbroken because precious medicinal plants, national products, were hunted down, exploited, uprooted, and sold cheaply abroad. Not only that, many bad guys took advantage of the gullibility of patients to profit, distorted scientific information, and sold products labeled as “health protection” but with unclear mixed ingredients, no quality control, no effectiveness, and even harmful to health.

Concerned about the path of preserving medicinal plants and the desire to develop the domestic medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical industry, in 2020, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong and other pharmacists established Chan Duoc Joint Stock Company, carrying out the mission of sustainably developing the Vietnamese medicinal herbs industry in a proactive and scientific way, supporting patients with accurate knowledge and information, along with high-quality health care products from clean and standard medicinal herbs.

Dr. Phuong shared that the company was named “Chan Duoc” with the motto: real herbs for the health of Vietnamese people. That is also Chan Duoc’s strong commitment during its operation. Since its establishment, Chan Duoc, together with the Institute of Southern Medicinal Plants, has provided high-standard medicinal herbs for consumption ; researched, tested, produced pharmaceuticals, provided standard samples of medicinal herbs; trained on plants, herbs, provided professional advice, and developed medicinal herb growing areas according to GACP clean medicinal herb standards.

Talking about the difficulties of a scientist taking on the role of an entrepreneur, Dr. Phuong said that the biggest challenge for him is sales. “Even if the product is good, if it does not reach consumers, it is a failure. Therefore, at the present stage, Chan Duoc is focusing on sales and product distribution,” Dr. Phuong said.

To control the quality of the input, he has very high requirements for the raw material growing areas. Up to now, in addition to Ba Vi, Chan Duoc has built raw material growing areas in Lang Son and Son La, with many precious medicinal herbs. This is both Chan Duoc's raw material production area and a place for him to introduce to colleagues, partners and those who are passionate about medicinal herb research to come and study.

With a strict and serious working process, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong's point of view is not to pursue quantity, but to delve into research and bring to the market truly quality products.

Currently, Chan Duoc's main products include liver detoxification products and hair growth support products, helping to reduce hair loss, improve appetite, and sleep well. In addition, Chan Duoc is researching a number of formulas to prepare sedatives and treat gout, arthritis, etc. In addition, Chan Duoc also has 18 types of herbal teas for daily use to increase resistance for the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

In particular, Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong is working with Chan Duoc and people in the regions to apply science and technology to build standardized medicinal herb growing areas to develop and preserve precious domestic medicinal herbs, serving consumption and production of pharmaceuticals and functional foods.

The journey of Chan Duoc will continue, because each step of Chan Duoc carries the values ​​of truth - goodness - beauty. Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong believes that only real values ​​can exist and develop sustainably, only real herbs can help patients overcome difficulties and illnesses.

“Chan Duoc is a rare unit in Vietnam that has a traditional medicine conservation garden in the heart of Hanoi with nearly 600 medicinal plant species collected from all over the country; at the same time, it has the ability to analyze and identify all Vietnamese plant species,” Dr. Ngo Duc Phuong proudly said.

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