Chapter 217 Market Research
Anyone who knows about Chinese medicinal materials knows this.
There is a rather complicated process in the process from planting to harvesting Chinese herbal medicines, and then turning them into real Chinese medicines that can be brewed into medicines.
After harvesting, almost all Chinese medicinal materials require primary processing, that is, processing at the place of origin.
This step includes cleaning, cutting and drying.
Purification is to remove impurities and non-medicinal parts from harvested Chinese medicinal materials, such as fibrous roots, leaves, etc.
Cutting is relatively simple, which is to cut the prepared medicinal materials into pieces of certain specifications for easy processing and sales.
Medicinal materials such as rhizomes will be cut into thick slices, and whole herbs such as mint will be cut into segments.
Needless to say, drying is mainly divided into natural ventilation drying and artificial drying.
Natural ventilation is mainly used for herbal Chinese medicines such as honeysuckle and chrysanthemum, while artificial drying uses professional equipment such as ovens and drying rooms to precisely control the drying of some medicinal materials that require precise drying, such as yam and rehmannia glutinosa.
The next step is deep processing, also called processing.
Processing mainly includes water processing, fire processing, and water and fire processing.
Water-based processing is to use clean water or other liquids to assist in processing medicinal materials. The most common methods are washing, soaking and rinsing. The main purpose is to remove the odor of medicinal materials and the hard texture of some medicinal materials. After rinsing, they soften the medicinal materials and make them more effective.
Fire processing involves heating medicinal materials directly or indirectly with fire. Common methods include frying, broiling, and calcining.
Stir-frying, as the name suggests, is to stir-fry Chinese medicinal materials in a heated iron pot. The purpose is to make the active ingredients of the medicinal materials more easily dissolved through high temperature, thereby increasing the efficacy of the medicine.
Roasting is also done by stir-frying; it is just that a certain amount of liquid excipients are added and stir-fried to integrate the excipients into the Chinese medicinal materials. The main purpose is to reduce the toxicity and irritation of the medicine.
For example, aroids are poisonous, and their toxicity can be reduced by roasting them with ginger, alum and other auxiliary materials.
Another example is ephedra.
Ephedra itself is slightly toxic and contains alkaloids such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. Direct administration will stimulate the central nervous system and cardiovascular system. Large amounts of ephedra are more likely to cause poisoning.
The irritation of ephedra after roasting with honey is greatly reduced, and the medicinal effect is more mild. It can be used for asthma, cough and other diseases, and is more suitable for the elderly and frail, spontaneous sweating due to superficial deficiency and long-term cough that does not heal.
In addition, there are several other auxiliary ingredients for vinegar, wine, salt, and ginger.
Forging is mainly used for drugs with hard texture, such as shellfish or minerals, such as keels, oysters, etc.
A common method is to place the medicine directly in a refractory container. After forging at high temperature, it becomes crispy and easy to process into fine powder.
These are the methods of fire making.
Water-fire co-processing is a cooking method that uses both water and fire. Common methods include steaming, boiling, stewing, boiling, etc.
For example, there are two kinds of Polygonum multiflorum on the market, raw and cooked (prepared).
The raw ones are harvested directly, washed, sliced, and dried.
To make it cooked (prepared), slice the Polygonum multiflorum into slices, mix it with the black bean juice, and then place it in a container to stew (steam) until the juice is absorbed.
It can be seen that in order to obtain high-quality Chinese medicinal materials, it is not simply a matter of growing the medicinal materials. The processing methods of different medicinal materials are completely different, and the process is very cumbersome.
After finishing the preparation step, the next step is storage.
The storage requirements for Chinese medicinal materials are not low. The most important ones are classification, pest control, and moisture protection.
So,
When Zhang Yang walked into the warehouse, he immediately saw a package of bulging white woven bags neatly stacked in various areas of the warehouse.
At a glance, in some areas, there are more than ten white woven bags stacked up, with a height of at least five or six meters;
In some areas, the yards are not high, only three or four meters, but the stack length is dozens of meters, covering an area of more than 100 square meters.
It was also Zhang Yang's first time to visit the storage warehouse of Chinese medicinal materials in person. Seeing the large scale, large quantity, and neatly stacked warehouse, he couldn't help but think highly of He Ping next to him again.
Don't underestimate warehouse management. This ability to organize and summarize is the greatest guarantee for the production of medicinal materials.
At this moment, he noticed a hangtag hanging above each area. Each hangtag corresponded to the name of the Chinese medicinal materials stored in that area.
Forsythia, mint, Bupleurum, Atractylodes, Astragalus...
Zhang Yang is actually not very familiar with Chinese medicinal materials. When he saw the name of Astragalus on the brand, he immediately thought of the example He Ping gave of Astragalus just now.
Subconsciously, he walked directly towards the area where astragalus was piled.
Upon seeing this, He Ping hurriedly followed him. When he saw Zhang Yang stopping in the area where astragalus was piled, he immediately said:
"Mr. Zhang, this is the Astragalus membranaceus I gave you as an example just now."
"You can take a look and compare the differences between three-year-old astragalus, two-year-old astragalus and one-year-old astragalus."
"Okay, let me take a look."
Zhang Yang was already interested, so he nodded in response.
Seeing this, He Ping hurriedly stepped forward, pulled down the top package of astragalus with force, and then deftly opened the seal. Suddenly, a package full of yellow and orange astragalus appeared in front of him.
"Mr. Zhang, this is three-year-old Astragalus membranaceus, top quality, all of which are used in our 'Feiduqing Granules'."
"Take a look."
As he spoke, he bent down and grabbed a handful from the woven bag, then placed it in front of Zhang Yang.
But as soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly said:
"Mr. Zhang, let's do this. If you look at it like this, you can't tell whether it's good or bad. I'll have someone bring first-year and second-year astragalus from other warehouses for you to compare. You can tell the difference at a glance."
"Hmm...Okay."
Zhang Yang was stunned for a moment, but did not refuse. About two or three minutes later, the warehouse staff brought two small bags of one-year-old and two-year-old astragalus from the nearby warehouse.
With just one glance, even a layman who promotes this traditional Chinese medicinal material will immediately notice the huge difference between the upper, middle and lower qualities of Astragalus membranaceus.
The annual astragalus slices have the smallest particles and are light yellow in color. When you break them gently, the slices instantly shatter, leaving countless powdery residues on your hands.
The two-year-old astragalus slices are medium-sized and light brown in color. When you break them gently with your fingers, the fracture is even, but the texture is obviously brittle.
Only the three-year-old astragalus slices not only have the largest diameter, but are also tan in color, and cannot be broken easily with fingers, and the toughness can even be clearly felt with fingers.
"Mr. Zhang, in addition to the appearance and texture, you can also put it in your mouth and bite it gently, and the feeling will be more obvious."
"Try the first-year ones first."
"Okay!"
Zhang Yang immediately followed He Ping's suggestion and took the lead in putting the annual astragalus slices into his mouth.
Chew it lightly and then spit it out.
The annual astragalus is so brittle that it breaks into medicinal residue as soon as you bite it, and you can't even feel the medicinal aroma.
He then put the two-year-old astragalus into his mouth.
The two-year-old astragalus has a faint medicinal aroma and beany smell, and the mild sweetness of astragalus also appears in the mouth.
This is obviously much better than annual astragalus.
Immediately afterwards, he put a piece of three-year-old astragalus into his mouth, chewed it gently a few times, and his eyes suddenly flashed with shock.
Compared with one- and two-year-old astragalus, the three-year-old astragalus not only changes in taste from slightly sweet to obviously sweet, but its medicinal aroma is more than twice as strong as before!
What surprised him the most was that the three-year-old astragalus slices would not break even if they were chewed hard, and one could even clearly feel that juice was flowing out of the astragalus slices!
The juice instantly spread throughout the mouth, and the strong medicinal aroma reached the Baihui point. After chewing only two tablets, I felt an unusual sense of clarity.
After a moment, he looked at He Ping and couldn't help but exclaimed: "He Ping, why is the gap so big?!"
To be honest, Zhang Yang had always known that there were some differences between high-grade, medium-grade, and low-grade medicinal materials before this, but at this moment, he truly realized the huge gap between good medicinal materials after personally checking and tasting them.
It can be said that in the face of high-grade medicinal materials, dogs will not even want low-grade medicinal materials!
However, this kind of medicinal material appears most frequently in major Chinese patent medicine and Chinese herbal medicine markets!
Zhang Yang's surprise fell in He Ping's eyes, and he nodded:
"That's right, Mr. Zhang, the gap is so big!"
As he spoke, He Ping suddenly sighed:
“Nowadays, everyone says that the effect of traditional Chinese medicine is getting worse and worse. There are even many people on the Internet who say that traditional Chinese medicine is a liar.”
“But what many people don’t know is that in the past, when the market demand was not so great, both drug farmers and planters were earning some hard-earned money.”
"At that time, not to mention three-year-old astragalus, four-year-old and even wild astragalus could be bought in the market; the Chinese medicine prescriptions prescribed by doctors were naturally very effective."
"Who would buy annual astragalus at that time? The purchasers didn't want it."
"But what now?"
"Not to mention the four-year-old astragalus, even the three-year-old astragalus is basically unavailable in the retail market except for professional pharmaceutical factories and medicinal wholesalers like us."
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"In major pharmacies and hospitals, only one-year-old and better two-year-old Astragalus are used. What diseases can it treat?"
Zhang Yang suddenly fell silent.
He knew before that 90% of the country's top-grade medicinal materials were exported to Japan and South Korea, and only 10% was still in the country.
As for why domestic pharmacies don’t sell top-quality medicinal materials.
They are nothing more than top-quality medicinal materials, especially Chinese medicinal materials that take several years to grow. The price is too expensive, the demand is not high, and the common people's awareness has not kept up.
At this moment, He Ping's words confirmed Zhang Yang's thoughts.
"Actually, there were two or three pharmaceutical companies trying to wholesale high-quality medicinal materials in the past few years, but..."
"The prices of high-quality medicinal materials are relatively expensive, and ordinary people don't understand these. They think that other people's medicines are so cheap, why are yours so expensive?
Over and over again, sales volume simply failed to increase, and many pharmacies were unwilling to continue purchasing high-quality medicinal materials. ”
"In addition, there are too many types of Chinese medicinal materials. If both high-grade medicinal materials and medium-grade and low-grade medicinal materials are involved, there will be too many things and too much financial pressure."
"As a result, the few remaining pharmaceutical companies have completely given up on the retail business of high-quality medicinal materials. After all, the sales volume is not large, it is not very profitable, and who is willing to do such troublesome things?"
Zhang Yang felt a little heavy as he listened.
He had never wanted to revive Chinese medicine, but at this moment he suddenly felt sad!
Although traditional Chinese medicine has been questioned in recent years, it is undeniable that it is indeed part of the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, a treasure of Chinese civilization, and has protected countless Chinese people for thousands of years.
But now, not to mention famous Chinese medicine teachers and inheritance of prescriptions, even basic high-end medicinal materials cannot be purchased by ordinary people!
It's a bit sad.
At this moment,
At some point, the warehouse staff brought another bag of Chinese medicinal materials from other places.
Zhang Yang took a closer look and saw that the black plastic bag contained astragalus.
It’s just that the slices of astragalus this time are even larger than the top-quality three-year-old astragalus, and the color is darker.
He suddenly realized it, and before He Ping could speak, he took the lead and said:
"Is this the rare astragalus you're talking about? It's four years old?"
"Yeah."
He Ping nodded and said:
"Mr. Zhang, four-year-old astragalus has more active ingredients and better effect than three-year-old astragalus."
"Of course, this kind of astragalus is basically unavailable in the market now. Neither growers nor pharmaceutical companies will plant four-year-old astragalus. I got this as a gift from a friend."
"So, if you really want to purchase a large amount of rare astragalus that is more than four years old, the best way is to grow it yourself and establish your own Chinese medicinal material planting base."
Hearing He Ping mention building his own Chinese herbal medicine planting base again, Zhang Yang nodded but said no more.
In fact, after he really felt the huge difference between the three-year-old Astragalus just now, he suddenly agreed with He Ping's previous suggestion——
Qingshan Pharmaceutical has established a Chinese herbal medicine planting base.
There is only one requirement: all medicinal materials are grown and processed according to the quality of top-grade medicinal materials, and the quality is strictly controlled.
Then it will be directly used in various future Chinese patent medicines of Qingshan Pharmaceutical.
If there is any leftover, it can also be sold for retail sale.
Yes, retail!
Specially targeted at retail with ordinary business owners.
Just this thought flashed through his mind, and he knew very well that this kind of thing was not something he could do just by thinking about it.
Let’s talk about it in the simplest way.
To set up your own Chinese herbal medicine planting base, you need some land, right?
What's more, given the size of Qingshan Pharmaceutical, if you want to do something big, you have to do something big. If you want to do something small, it's better not to do it.
A few hundred acres of land, right?
Where does the earth come from?
There are also strict requirements for climate and origin of Chinese medicinal materials. Qingshan Pharmaceutical does have some connections in Chengdu, but if you go out of Chengdu to establish a planting base elsewhere, you have to consider all aspects of land purchase and other related issues.
It’s troublesome just thinking about it.
Thinking of this, Zhang Yang waved his hand:
"Okay, He Ping, please show me other medicinal materials."
"Okay."
After Zhang Yang interrupted the topic of "establishing a Chinese herbal medicine base" again, He Ping also completely understood.
Next, he did not mention the matter of "Qingshan Pharmaceutical establishing a Chinese medicinal material planting base" again, and began to take Zhang Yang seriously to visit every Chinese medicinal material used in "Feiduqing Granules".
The more Zhang Yang looked, the deeper his feelings became. For the first time, he truly felt the huge gap between medicinal materials and medicinal materials.
He even noticed that there was a certain gap between high-grade medicinal materials and high-grade medicinal materials.
This is quality control.
Of course, what makes Zhang Yang sad the most is that ordinary people cannot buy really good medicinal materials.
Just like what He Ping said just now, let alone talking about traditional Chinese medicine inheritance, famous doctors and famous prescriptions, what kind of curative effect can the medicinal materials have if they are inferior to others?
"Hey... I didn't expect that the place where Tangtang Chinese Medicine originated would now reach such a state."
Zhang Yang was filled with emotion. Two hours later, he ended his trip to Hehua Pharmaceutical and returned to Qingshan Pharmaceutical.
In the next two days, Zhang Yang began to deal with various businesses of Qingshan Pharmaceutical normally, but he did not let go of the matter in his mind about "Qingshan Pharmaceutical establishing a Chinese herbal medicine planting base". On the contrary, as time passed, his inner impulse More and more intense.
Early in the morning, he took out his cell phone.
"That's all, let's go to the Chinese medicinal materials market first and do some market research!"
(End of chapter)