Uncaria spp. "comes out of the mountains" and becomes "golden hook" in Dong Township, Hunan

China News Service, Huaihua, Hunan, September 5th. Title: Uncaria spp. "comes out of the mountains" and turns into a "golden hook" in Dong Township, Hunan.

Author Zhang Xueying

Walking into Tongtong Dong Autonomous County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, you will see lush uncaria trees all over the mountains and plains. More than a dozen villagers bent down to pick fresh branches of Uncaria, while Ming Chunxiang, a large grower, directed workers to pack packing boxes and prepare to send 15 tons of Uncaria to a pharmaceutical factory in Guizhou.

"In the past, people in the mountains only used Uncaria as firewood. Unexpectedly, this small rattan came out of the mountains and became the 'Golden Hook'." Ming Chunxiang said.

Uncaria is commonly found in the shaded areas of valleys in South and Southwest China. It is named because its branches are covered with hooks. Its hooked stems and branches have high medicinal value and are an important component of traditional Chinese medicine preparations for treating convulsions and hypertension in children.

“In the past, there were wild Uncaria all over the mountains and plains, and drug dealers from Guangxi, Guizhou and other places occasionally came here to buy it.” Observing this business opportunity, Ming Chunxiang began to collect seedlings and test planting, and gradually built a 400-acre Uncaria planting technology demonstration base, and also reached purchase cooperation with many local villagers.

Uncaria is unscrupulous and easy to manage. In Xikou Town and Jingwuzhou Town, Tongtong County, villagers used the cleared open space in front of and behind the houses and scattered "palm fields" to plant Uncaria and develop "courtyard medicinal materials". "The yard used to be overgrown with weeds, but now planting Uncaria can increase income by nearly 50,000 yuan (RMB, the same below) a year, which is much better than working outside." Wu Jianeng, a villager in Pingtou Village, Xikou Town, said.

As her understanding of the industry deepened, Ming Chunxiang realized that only by extending from the planting industry to the processing industry can the added value of Uncaria products be truly enhanced. The two cooperatives she established have formed a full industrial chain layout from seedling breeding, planting, initial processing to sales. The processed Uncaria is sold to nationally renowned Chinese medicinal materials markets such as Hebei Anguo, Anhui Bozhou, Guangxi Yulin, etc., with an annual output value of 5 million yuan.

Driven by Ming Chunxiang, many large growers emerged in Tongtong County. In just a few years, the county's Uncaria planting area has exceeded 100,000 acres, ranking first in China. The comprehensive output value of the entire industry chain has exceeded 250 million yuan, driving an increase in the income of more than 20,000 farmers.

Yang Ao, a Dong youth born in the 1990s, returned to his hometown to start a business and became one of the leaders in the local Chinese herbal medicine industry. He not only reached cooperation with more than 20 well-known pharmaceutical companies such as Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Yunnan Baiyao, but also took advantage of Tongtong County's unique location at the junction of three provinces (regions) to acquire Uncaria from Guangxi and Guizhou for reprocessing.

Yang Ao said that he will build 500 acres of ultra-high-standard Uncaria base in the future, strictly follow the "Good Manufacturing Practice for Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials", realize the traceability of seedlings, and make Uncaria have uniform quality and stable medicinal properties.

"The storage capacity of Tongtong's Chinese herbal medicines has exceeded 5,000 tons, which basically meets the storage needs of the current production." Wu Zhineng, director of Tongtang County's Traditional Chinese Medicines Industry Development Office, said that the county is building the largest TCM trading and distribution center in the three provinces of Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou. It is expected to be put into use in 2027. By then, a six-in-one comprehensive service system of "trading + warehousing + processing + logistics + testing + information" will be formed, turning mountain medicinal materials into "wealth" for local people.