Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP): A Paragon for Traditional Chinese Medicine Exchange and Cooperation

Established in 1959 and with an area of 202 hectares, Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP) (also known as Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Institute, Medicinal Plant Research Institute of Chinese Academy Of Medical Science, Guangxi Branch) is a nonprofit institution affiliated to Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangxi, specializing in collection, preservation and display of medicinal animal and plant resources, science popularization education, development of featured traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and ethnopharmacological resource products, quality control and standard research on TCM products, drafting and testing quality standards of Chinese medicinal materials. It has upheld the development mode and concept, which is to promote scientific research by resources protection, lead industry development by scientific research, and consolidate resources protection by industrial development.

Chinese party and state leaders including Jiang Zemin, Hu Jindao, Qiao Shi, Jia Qinglin have ever visited and inspected here.

Rich Germplasm Resources are Preserved

The established preservative system consists of the storage of living plants, seeds, shedding plants, samples, fractions and genes. At present, there are 8,900 species that belong to 1,773 genera under 282 families in the garden. The largest off-site conservation center for pharmaceutical plants has taken initial shape here, which expands the scope of conservation biology to medicinal plants conservancy, a key subject identified by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China(SATCM). GBGMP also took the lead to conduct the pilot work of the fourth national general survey on resource of TCM in Guangxi, and established related leading group and office. In this survey, 162,000 dry samples, 463 seeds and seedlings and 572 medicinal materials were collected, 8 new species and 12 new record species (genus) were found and 131 items were recorded as traditional knowledge.

Profound Scientif c Research

The garden has one state-level laboratory--National Engineering Laboratory of Southwest Endangered Medicinal Resources Development, one provinciallevel key laboratory--Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources Protection and Genetic Improvement, which are equipped with over 100 sets of largescale instrument and equipment and occupy an area of 20,000m2. There are 2“BaGui” scholars, 1 specially hired expert, 33 visiting professors, 4 elites from Guangxi talent project, 4 post-doctors, 36 doctors and associate professors and 83 masters working here.

As a well-known teaching and scientific research base, GBGMP established joint laboratories (research centers) with the Medical University of Graz (Austria) and the Middle Tennessee State University(United States), and co-conducted research in related fields. The garden obtained over 30 state-level projects and 110 provincial-level projects with 116.88 million yuan projects funds. It declared 97 patents (21 were granted), possessed 31 new species, obtained 23 prizes, released 922 academic articles, formulated 109 local standards and published 36 monographs.

Sound Outcomes

China Herb Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which is established and controlled by GBGMP, serves as an important platform to turn research achievements into tangible outcomes. The high-quality seed and seedling base is comprised by 10 mu tissue culture seedling production center and 1,000 mu fine species breeding base. The TCM production and demonstration industrialization base includes a 100,000 mu standardization planting base, a 24,000 m2GMP workshop identified by QS and a 10,000 m2biotechnology center.

National technology alliance on TCM seed and seedling base is proposed and co-built by Modern Chinese Medicine Resources Dynamic Monitoring Information and Technology Service Center, National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, GBGMP, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, China National Corp. of Traditional & Herbal Medicine and project undertakers of constructing the seed and seedling bases in dif erent region.

Sponsored by the GBGMP and the People's Government of Yulin City, China Southern Herbal Garden, with 4 billion planned investment funds, will integrate with high-efficient agriculture, leisure tourism, health and regimen, and will work as a multifunctional system focusing on “southern herbal planting, scientific research and development, leisure tourism, health and regimen and cultural exchange” with “breeding cultivation, inspection and testing, information service, science popularization education, supporting service, health care service for the aged and ecological dwelling” as the supplement.

China Traditional Chinese Medicine Seeds & Seeding Co., Ltd., which is cobuilt by China National Traditional Chinese Medicine Corporation and GBGMP, is equipped with 49,600 m2greenhouse and 200,000 mu TCM production and demonstration industrialization base. It is now striving to set up seedling bases in Yulin City (Guangxi) and Longxi County (Gansu) respectively.

Demonstration projects that technology serves local development have been implemented by GBGMP. The project for planting ten thousand acres of pseudoginseng has been launched. The garden has also inked Development and Planning Service Agreement on Biological Medicine industry of Hechi City and Comprehensive Technical Service Agreement on Chinese Herbal Medicine Industry Development of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County with the People's Government of Hechi City and the People's Government of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County respectively, and conducted cooperation with Guangxi Forestry Group in Chinese herbal medicine forest ecological planting, forest health care-based tourism, Chinese herbal medicine and forestry products research and development.

Photo of Lao, Cambodian and Myanmar trainees in GBGMP training project

On the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants

Frequent International Cooperation and Exchanges

GBGMP has currently established and maintained sound cooperative and exchange links with 30 countries and regions.

--Establishing sister gardens relationships. It signed an agreement with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Britian) to jointly build GBGMP, a friendly agreement with Chicago Botanic Garden (United States) and a memorandum of friendly cooperation with Bogor Botanical Gardens (Indonesia). Cooperation has also been carried out with University of Glaz (Austria) and Taiwan Tzu Chi University (China).

--Setting up branches and joint laboratories. GBGMP has inked agreements with Shiyan City (Hubei, China) and Rugao City (Jiangxi, China) to co-build its branches. In addition, the China-Austria Chinese Traditional Medicine Joint Laboratory and China-U.S. Joint Laboratory have been set up as well.

--Conducting technical exchange and training. The technical personnel of GBGMP were sent to the Botanical Garden in Bali (Indonesia), the V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Middle Tennessee State University in the United States, the Kew Garden in the United Kingdom and the Tzu Chi University in Taiwan (China) to exchange and study; the experts from the Department of Pharmacy of Kumamoto University in Japan were invited to be present to give academic reports; and of cials from the Ministries of Science and Technology in Indonesia and Cambodia as well as the people concerned from the Royal Institution in Thailand once visited the GBGMP one after another.

--Organizing large-scale international events. GBGMP has successfully organized a series of international events such as the 9thInternational Congress on Ethnopharmacology in 2006, China Botanical Garden Annual Academic Conference in 2009, the sub-forums of China-ASEAN Summit Forum on Traditional Medicine in 2011 and 2013, the 3rdNational Symposium on Seed Science and Technology in 2013, the China Medical Pteridophyte Symposium in 2014, the Sino-Austrian Winter School for Chinese Herbal Medicine for 4 consecutive years, and also undertaken the “Traditional Chinese Medicine City in Southern China” Forum under the 4thChina (Yulin) Traditional Chinese Medicine EXPO. Moreover, the 16thInternational Congress on Ethnopharmacology will be hosted in 2016.

Steady Progress in International Exchange and Cooperation

At the 14th China-ASEAN Summit (10+1) on November 18, 2011, “Work harder to promote cooperation in social areas and areas important to people's livelihood,” the then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said,“We propose the opening of a China-ASEAN research center on traditional medicine.”

In June, 2013, the CATMECC (Guangxi) was officially established. Under the overall coordination and macro-guidance of SATCM together with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the P.R.C and the specific leadership of the People’s Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the P.R.C, the CATMECC exerts its ef orts to promote the achievements transformation of traditional medicine’s researches, supported with 9 units such as the National Engineering Laboratory of Southwest Endangered Medicinal Resources Development, the Guangxi Institute of Chinese Traditional Medicine and Ethnic Medicine Sciences, along with 6 partners including Guilin Sanjin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Guangxi Wuzhou Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. and so on. The Office of CATMECC (Guangxi) is based in GBGMP.

The project is aimed at strengthening China-ASEAN exchange and cooperation in the f eld of traditional medicine, playing the role in influencing, popularizing and leading the development of traditional Chinese medicine, promoting China-ASEAN traditional medicine to achieve mutual benefits, mutual assistance and mutual learning, creating a platform for China-ASEAN traditional medicine information exhibiting, resources integration, talents accumulation and technology upgrading, and industry development and trade guidance.