(Frick, 13 February 2017) Today, Urs Niggli, Director of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland, signed a ten-year bilateral cooperation agreement for setting up the cooperation platform on Chinese organic herbal medicine with Miao Jianhua, Director of the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP) China. The cooperation platform aims at promoting organic cultivation of Chinese medicinal herbs in China, ensuring the quality of Chinese medicinal materials and facilitating their entrance into the European market.
New Research Institute of Organic Herbal Medicine
The first outcome of the cooperation between FiBL and the GBGMP is the establishment of the "China-Switzerland Joint Research Institute of Organic Herbal Medicine". The Institute will be located in Nanning City, Guangxi Province, China, as well as in FiBL Switzerland. The institute will carry out organic research and development projects, including organic herb cultivation, herbal extracts and natural bioactive compound utilization in bio-pesticide and bio-veterinary drug development. The tasks of the joint institute also include training staff, students and farmers as well as building up communications and academic meeting platforms between Switzerland and China on organic medicinal plants.
In 2017, the joint institute aims to initiate two research projects. As one of two planned training projects in 2017, the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants will invite experts from FiBL to teach Guangxi-ASEAN Traditional Medicine Protection and Development training courses, which are held by the GBGMP each year in Nanning.
Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, China
The Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP) is located in Southwest China in the autonomous region Guangxi Zhuang on an area of 202 hectares. It was established in 1959 and aims to cultivate, collect and save medicinal plants as well as conduct research. As a non-profit institution it is affiliated with the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangxi. It has become an advanced international base for medicinal plant conservation and a centre for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) culture and science. In 2011, the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants was awarded a record from the Guinness Book of World Records for having “the World’s Biggest Medicinal Botanical Garden” for the most preserved plant species and largest preserved plant areas.
The Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants is also the Guangxi branch of the Medicinal Plant Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Medical Science
Further information
Links
- gxyyzwy.com: Homepage of the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP) (in Chinese)
- xinhuanet.com: News article on the Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants (GBGMP)
FiBL contacts
- Dr. Qiyan Wang-Müller, FiBL Switzerland
- Prof. Dr. Urs Niggli, Director FiBL Switzerland
- Franziska Hämmerli, FiBL Switzerland
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