A few days ago, at the China International College Student Innovation Competition (2023) held in Tianjin, the "Pioneer of Innovative Raw Materials for Western Native Plant Skin Care Products" project led by the School of Pharmacy of Nankai University won the first place in the "Youth Red Dream Building Journey" track. Behind the achievements is a group of Nankai people who have been exploring and pursuing for 5 years. From a small plant, they explored the "secret" of becoming beautiful, and injected scientific and technological power into the creation of "the light of domestic products".
In 2019, Li Zhiyang, a 2021 doctoral student at the School of Pharmacy at Nankai University, stumbled upon a local plant in Zhuanglang County, Gansu Province, which looked very similar to a native plant that the lab was looking for. He excitedly took a photo, and after checking with the teachers, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was the plant "Alpine Gentian" that they had been looking for for a long time.
"Alpine gentian" is a typical western native plant, and its key ingredient gentian bitter is very effective in the field of medicine, but its raw material is very difficult to find. No one could have imagined that this plant resource, which is regarded as a treasure in the laboratory, is all over the mountains and wilderness in Zhuanglang, Gansu Province, and is mostly used as feed for cattle and sheep.
This discovery gave Sun Tao, director of the pharmacology department of the School of Pharmacy of Nankai University, a new idea. Sun Tao has been deeply involved in the field of biomedical research and development for many years, and in recent years, he has turned his attention to the field of health, researching and developing skin care ingredients. Several years of research made him realize that there is a serious "bottleneck" problem in the preparation of raw materials in China's skin care industry. "In fact, China's skin care products market is huge, but our research and development of plant raw materials is very small, and many raw materials rely on imports. ”
In this way, Li Zhiyang, as the project leader, led Feng Changlin and other 7 students to embark on the road of research and development of "functional raw materials" for several years. A journey of dream-building that spans thousands of kilometers begins.
In the following two years, the team went to Zhuanglang, ** and other areas in Gansu Province for field investigations, and their footprints were all over the fields and mountains. Through the stepwise functional verification system and advanced and efficient extraction technology, the team studied the key components of the 208 species of plants, and combined with the comprehensive consideration of plant distribution, the basis of large-scale production, policy advantages, and agricultural systems, more than 10 species of plants with great development value were finally selected.
How to promote the real transformation and implementation of scientific research results and benefit the society is the second problem that the team should work together to solve.
Western plants, university scientific research and brand side are three independent fields, if the information barriers of the three parties can be broken, it will open up a new track for the 'integration of production, education, research and application'. Sun Tao said.
In this process, Sun Tao became a "translator". While leading the team to make achievements, we actively carry out communication and exchanges, so as to provide "reassurance" for enterprises and open up "new ideas" for farmers.
After hard work, this quest finally came to fruition. The team has carried out in-depth cooperation with domestic skin care brands and established a joint laboratory dedicated to the research and development of functional ingredients.
Adhering to the skin care concept of "scientific, safe and efficient", the functional ingredients in more than ten kinds of raw materials have gained a good reputation after the products are put into the market.
Relying on the Chinese-style modern rural workstation, the team has steadily promoted the industrialization process of the project in the western countryside. Through the joint construction of the base, farmers began large-scale land planting with the support of the local government, and achieved an increase of 30,000-50,000 yuan in annual income per household.
At present, we have reached a cooperation with a smart elderly care company in Shanghai, and in the future, we will take skin care products as the entry point to open up the treasure house of resources in the western region and make more contributions in the field of big health. When it comes to future planning, Li Zhiyang is excited and determined.
In Nankai, Professor Sun Tao's team is just a microcosm of the many entrepreneurial teams in the School of Pharmacy. Over the years, the teachers and students of the School of Pharmacy have kept up with the demand, devoted themselves to scientific research, written the best on the land of the motherland, and sent the results to thousands of households. The college has created innovative and innovative projects and related activities with a strong sense of "medicine", continuously opened up new fields and new tracks for the development of pharmacy, and formed an innovation system and scientific research platform with the characteristics of Nankai pharmacy.
The spirit of impartiality and energy, cultivating pharmaceutical talents, creating good medicines, and bless human health' is the mission of Nankai Pharmaceutical Scholars. We will keep this mission in mind and continue to pursue it. Sun Tao said.
China Education Daily, 2024-02-17, 2nd edition
Author: Reporter Chen Xinran, correspondent Cong Min, Liu Changqi.