Wenshan Prefecture, Wenshan City and other levels in Yunnan Province actively respond to the national traditional Chinese medicine policy and implement regional quality assurance projects for authentic medicinal materials. In 2015, the Wenshan Panax Notoginseng Digital Materia Medica Laboratory was established, and joint research was carried out with the National Pharmacopoeia Commission, the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the China Pharmaceutical University and other institutions.
The center is committed to agricultural products, Chinese herbal medicines, food, environment and other major fields, building a one-stop scientific and technological support platform based on quality and safety testing, taking into account the characteristics and standards of authentic medicinal materials, and integrating training and display functions, mainly serving the world's largest users of the whole industry chain such as production, processing and trading. As a public technical service platform, the center provides routine testing, scientific research customization, consulting and training and other services, and allocates professional technology and talents to the field, storage and processing sites, and provides technical support for authentic medicinal materials.
The central laboratory covers an area of 7,000 square meters, with reasonable functional layout, in order to effectively solve a series of problems such as authenticity, pesticide residues, heavy metals and mycotoxins of Panax notoginseng and other authentic varieties, the center is equipped with more than 120 sets of large-scale instruments and equipment such as high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatograph, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer, gas chromatography-mass spectrometer, nucleic acid analyzer, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, ultraviolet spectrophotometer, etc.
Within five years, the center has been equipped with more than 100 professionals and senior experts, of which more than 50% are senior engineers and graduate students. The core technical capabilities cover more than 200 pesticide residues, more than 20 heavy metals, more than 10 mycotoxins, and more than 500 kinds of conventional Chinese medicinal materials in the fields of agricultural products, food, Chinese herbal medicine decoction pieces, and the environment. In cooperation with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, the Center has established a DNA barcode database of Chinese herbal medicines, including the sequences of more than 10,000 animal and plant species, which has been successfully applied to the identification of nearly 500 common animal and plant medicinal materials and their relatives and thousands of species of counterfeit products in the 2015 edition of the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China. Through the in-depth study of DNA sequences, the specific PCR technology is applied to the rapid identification of Chinese herbal medicines, which plays a role in traditional Chinese medicine in ethnic medicine, multi-based source medicine, animal and plant medicine, etc., and can customize the exclusive DNA database of enterprises and institutions and provide training services. The center has pioneered the development of exclusive rapid test products for Chinese herbal medicines, including rapid test kits, aflatoxin rapid test kits, rapid test kits, sulfur dioxide rapid test color cards, etc. The laboratory is equipped with the world's leading LIMS information management system, which fully integrates and effectively links the daily processes of the laboratory such as sample testing, standard methods, report review, personnel training and performance management, equipment and material management, avoids human factors such as subjective judgment, omission, and change, and transforms the tedious daily work of the laboratory into an innovative management mode that is visual, quantifiable, traceable, and early warning.
The center adheres to the professional spirit of "digital materia medica, ingenuity testing", adheres to the professional ethics of "because of intentions, so accurate", implements the quality policy of "fairness, science, accuracy, satisfaction and improvement", and builds the first international brand in the field of traditional Chinese medicine testing with science and technology as the guide, demand-oriented, customer-centric and technology-guaranteed.