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Living amid the garden of medicinal plants

The house of Chanh's family is also the headquarters of the Luu Chanh medicinal plant cooperative situated close to the Tay Yen Tu spiritual path. Her family has a tradition of making herbal medicine prescriptions. For many generations, Dao, Cao Lan, San Chi and San Diu people in the area of Tu Son (four communes: Binh Son, Luc Son, Truong Son and Vo Tranh of Luc Nam district) have known how to use plants around them to treat diseases and improve health. 

Tay Yen Tu forest, where there are many precious medicinal plants.

From being a baby, she has been "sunk" in the fragrance of herbal plants, leaves and tubers. She knew how to identify herbal medicine even before knowing the letters. So is the way San Diu people pass medicine prescriptions to their descendants. 

I want to turn the garden at the foot of Dong Giang hill into a highlight for tourists when pilgrimaging to Tay Yen Tu. I will introduce tra hoa vang so that more and more people know about the precious medicinal plant as well as herbal medicine potential of my homeland Ha Thi Chanh

In the 1990s, the life of the young couple faced numerous difficulties. They had to think of how to buy and sell herbal medicine. Initially, they only carried out trips to sell ba kich (Medicinal Indian Mulberry) and lingzhi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) around the Tu Son area, and then step by step expanded the sale of the products to other areas. 

Ha Thi Chanh.

In the early 2000s, they reached out to Ha Giang, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa province and even China. However, after each trip, especially the overseas one, this woman always thought of one thing: Vietnam boasts abundant herbal medicine sources and many varieties have been recognized by the world as very precious. Why do people in the country only exploit natural medicinal plants and then sell them to foreign traders in the form of raw materials? Why do few people think of preserving, propagating and improving the value of medicinal plants in Vietnam?

In 2017, they registered to establish the Luu Chanh medicinal plant cooperative.

Dream comes true

Ha Thi Chanh exchanges with cooperative members on techniques of growing medicinal plants.

Back to the story of foreign customers ordering tra hoa vang (yellow flowering Camellia or Camellia chrysantha), at that time, she did not know much about this plant so she had to bring samples to ask the elderly and those who often go to the forest to get more information. Tra hoa vang is called by ordinary people and its name in the documents is Kim hoa tra. 

Previously, it was found much in Yen Tu forest but in recent years, it has become exhausted due to overexploitation. As a rare species, all parts of the plant can be used but its growth speed is very slow, leading to the risk of losing natural gene source.

Chanh and her husband realized that so they bought seedlings of families in the area, with a few plants each family. Some were planted decades ago but their bodies are only as large as a wrist. Gradually, the over-one-hectare garden of her family has become a tra hoa vang incubator. Every year, the couple layer, propagate and provide cuttings for the people around.

Nguyen Van Ngoan, 62, a member of the cooperative, said: "Although we have just been involved in planting, our family now has about 1,000 trees, some of which have been planted before so we can sell their flowers. The couple of Luu Chanh bought them for 600,000-700,000 VND per kilogramme of dry flowers for normal type and over 1 million VND per kilogramme for better flowers; leaves and branches cost 40,000-50,000 VND per kilogramme. Every day, I earn 700,000-800,000 VND from leaves and branches.

Not only purchasing and ensuring markets for local people’s products, but the couple has also invested nearly 2 billion VND in buying processing machinery and equipment. After being semi-processed and dried, flowers and leaves are crushed and mixed in a scientific process, and then packed into convenient bags. 

Tra hoa vang (yellow flowering Camellia) product of Luu Chanh medicinal plant cooperative.

The product has been recognized to meet food safety regulations by the Vietnam Food Administration under the Ministry of Health. At present, the product is sold in Bac Giang, Hanoi and many other provinces and cities with a price of 70,000 VND per box of 20 bags. It is well received and consumed.

Seeing the direction of the cooperative, in early October, the provincial Department of Industry and Trade has provided 70 million VND for an investment project on application of automatic tea bag packaging machines in the production of tra hoa vang under the province’s industrial promotion programme. Since the beginning of this year, the cooperative has sold about 5,000 boxes a month, earning over 300 million VND in revenue.

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Quoc Phuong