ASU participates in realization of all-Russian project on medicinal plant industry
Main organizers of the event, which hosted such Altai manufacturing companies as Altai Buket, Altai Visterra and specialists in growing and primary processing of medicinal plants and production of drugs for human health correction, included Association of Manufacturers and Consumers of Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products and Altai State University.
The meeting was held in accordance with action plan developed for realization of HealthNet roadmap of National Technological Initiative, in the framework of project for revival of medicinal plant industry confirmed by decision of presidium of Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for Modernization of Economy and Innovative Development of Russia and signed by the Prime Minister of Russia D.A. Medvedev on 29 December 2016.
Ideologist of medicinal plant industry revival in Russia, President of Association of Manufacturers and Consumers of Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products, Head of Preventive Medicine direction in HealthNet roadmap, HealthNet work group member Andrey A. Kozko attended the session.
“By realizing this project we try to unite science, education and manufacturing. In this case Altai State University acts as a basis, because agriculture and certainly medicinal plant growing is impossible without highly-qualified specialists, training of which is carried out by Altai State University. In one word, nothing turns out well without aggregation of science, education and manufacturing, so the role of ASU in this project is very important,” Andrey A. Kozko noted. “We revive a whole industry sector that has been jeopardized in our country and requires significant investments. In particular, we need to reconstruct technologies for cultivation of planting material, such as microclonal propagation that is successfully used by Altai State University. Thus, we will be able to achieve positive results in realization of this project by joining forces.”
The session was dedicated to summarizing the results of the first year of experiment on cultivation of 16 medicinal plant species in several places of Altai Krai, including the territory of ASU South-Siberian Botanic Garden. This project is carried out in cooperation with Chinese partners: University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Changchun), Institute of Medicinal Plant Development under Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Beijing), Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China and Department for Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As agreed with Chinese colleagues, different medicinal plants had been pricked out on the territory of South-Siberian Botanic Garden. They are representatives of Compositae, Leguminosae and Gentianaceae families that grow mostly in the north of China and in South-East Asia.
“We had a small experimental site about 5 hundred square meters in area, where we have been carrying out phenological observations over the plants for a year. A number of species showed relatively high productivity, for example, Achyranthes bidentata. In our Chinese colleagues’ opinion, the productivity of this plant turned out to be even higher than they expected. On the whole, the main point of the experiment is to size the possibility of growing specific medicinal plant species in conditions of Siberia,” specified Head of the Department for Plant Systematics at South-Siberian Botanic Garden, Candidate of Biology, Assistant Professor Sergey V. Smirnov.
In the framework of the session Sergey V. Smirnov delivered a report about the results of experiment on Chinese medicinal plants cultivation on the territory of South-Siberian Botanic Garden. The issue of processing of plant raw material was touched upon by Director of Scientific and Research Institute for Biological Medicine at Altai State University, Doctor of Biology, Professor Vyacheslav V. Lampatov, who told the attendees about implementation of innovative methods for production and usage of natural crude medicines and medicinal products manufactured on the basis of it.
Member of Public Council Commission for Import Substitution in Russian Industry under the Ministry of Ministry and Trade of the Russian Federation and member of presidium at International Center for Engineering and Innovations non-profit organization Tatiana P. Vyugina emphasized the fact that participation of higher education establishments, Altai State University in particular, in the project is very important:
“Everything related to education, engineering and implementation is a big issue, which is an important part of project replication all over Russia. According to the expert analysis, there are almost no organizations left in reviving medicinal plant industry, and we have to solve the problems without government support just yet. At the same time, Russian medicinal plant industry has unclaimed potential, over 40 percent of pharmaceuticals are made on the base of plant extracts. That is why Altai State University is a significant point of this project, which is to become a basis in specialists’ training and research conducting.”
The session resulted in establishing expert messages to the address of the government of the country and region, corresponding ministries and departments with the recommendation to turn attention to the work of initiators in the area of revival of medicinal plant industry and processing of plant raw materials in Russia.
