Known as the "miracle of Tibet," the Tibetan medicine has begun to move out of the snowy plateau and enjoy popularity abroad. But how are the prospects of its domestic and foreign promotion?

According to Tibetan physician Zhonggegya, the Tibetan medicine poses strict requirements on processing mineral medicinal substances, such as gold, silver, copper and iron. With special processing techniques, these substances will become specific curatives following qualitative changes.

But such medicines were believed to be highly toxic as they have a high heavy metallic content. Actually, modern research shows that these heavy metals in the Tibetan medicines are safe to the human body after going through strict refining processes.

The Tibetan medicines are mainly produced on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau featuring the world's highest altitude, a sharp temperature difference between the day and night, strong ultraviolet rays and abundant biological species. Such a unique natural environment contributes to the high-content and high-activated Tibetan medicines.

"Integrating the characteristics of the traditional Chinese medicine and ancient Indian and Persian medical sciences, the Tibetan medicine has been effective in treating cardiovascular diseases, prostate disorders, stomach trouble, dermatosis, and hepatitis," said Li Fangrui, CEO of the Jingzhu Tibetan Medicine Group, Qinghai Province.

A worker is pakaging Tibetan medicines in a workshop of the Jinke Tibetan Medicine Company, the biggest of its kind in Qinghai Province. (Xinhua Photo)

Zhonggegya noted that clinic institutions and research centers on Tibetan medicine have been set up in the U.S., Europe, Japan and southeastern Asia since 2000. A pharmaceutical factory producing Tibetan medicines has been built in Switzerland as well.

Meanwhile, India and Nepal are considered another two major potential markets for Tibetan medicines. For geographic proximity, the residents in these two countries tend to accept the medicine's healing philosophy more easily.

Other countries like the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia, Japan and South Korea also have shown a great interest in this medicine. Foreign institutes of higher education such as the University of Tokyo have centers for Tibetan medicine research and many Japanese have chosen to treat rheumatism with this medicine.

Generally, this medicine is more poplar in Asia than in Europe. 

However, problems including the exhaustion of medicinal resources and adulterants are threatening the development of this science. 
 

In recent years, with eco-environmental deterioration and predatory exploitation of natural resources, a vicious circle has formed -- the more expensive the raw medicine is, the more people engage in medicinal material collection, resulting in less and less medicinal substances and increasingly higher prices.

For instance, the price of the Chinese caterpillar fungus has soared to more than 10,000 yuan (1,464 U.S. dollars) per kg from only 100 yuan decades ago and still continues rising now.

On the market, the ratio of the genuine and fake Tibetan medicine is about 1:10, a top official of an enterprise revealed.

Anyway, there is a long way to go before making the West understand and accept this science.

Photo shows a field of jerusalem artichokes, a plant used as a medicinal material in the Tibetan medicine. (Xinhua Photo)
 
No explicit definition has been made of the Tibetan medicine in any Western science and medical theory. Zhonggegya indicated that excluded from regular pharmacy by most western countries, the Tibetan medicines are regarded as a supplement to health products or food addictives only and no promotion or advertisement can be made for it in the Western market.

Moreover, some indexes, such as the heavy metal content, microorganism remnants and pesticide residues, also have hindered its development on the global market because it is hard to enable these indexes to meet international safety standards.

"Like any other traditional medicine, the Tibetan medicine needs improving in many aspects including prescription and processing techniques. Today, the modern Tibetan medicine focuses on abandoning the use of improper addictives and developing more drug forms in order to improve its efficacy," Li Fangrui said.