Gastrodia elata, Gardenia jasminoides, Platycodon grandiflorus and other Chinese medicinal herbs in Tongjiang, Sichuan reach 110,000 mu with total output value of 1.2 billion

According to news from Tongjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, the locality focuses on developing large-scale cultivation of white fungus, Gastrodia elata, "three-wood" medicinal herbs and others. At present, planting bases for Gastrodia elata, Gardenia jasminoides, Platycodon grandiflorus, Rheum officinale, Lonicera japonica and others have been established, with a Chinese medicinal herb planting area of 110,000 mu and a total output value of 1.2 billion yuan.

Tongjiang Gastrodia elata

Tongjiang County is rich in Chinese medicinal herb resources. The county has a total of 1,736 native Chinese medicinal herb species, including 53 rare and precious species and 598 bulk commonly used species; the total reserves are about 30 million kg, the annually exploitable amount is 10 million kg, and 34 species can be cultivated on a large scale.

Tongjiang County has adopted a model of government leadership, private capital participation and government-enterprise cooperation, cultivating Chinese medicinal herb enterprises represented by Qianfang Pharmaceutical that integrate planting, pharmaceutical research, development and production, and establishing 5 Chinese medicinal herb planting and distribution associations and 13 specialized cooperatives, initially forming an industrial system of Chinese medicinal herb planting, demonstration bases, seedling breeding and scientific research innovation.

The locality also takes the edible fungus industry, mainly white fungus, as a key industry. In cooperation with the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it sent Tongjiang white fungus spawn into the "Shenzhou 8" spacecraft for space breeding experiments. At present, preliminary screening cultivation trials have been carried out in many places in the county, the highest-quality spawn has been cultivated and planted on a large scale throughout the county, and health and wellness products such as white fungus tea, white fungus wine, white fungus soup and white fungus facial masks have been developed.