The Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH) is putting out a book on the main substances found in herbs that are used in Chinese medicine. The book is intended to be a reference for the pharmaceutical industry as well as for health-food producers.
Lin I-hsin (林宜信), chairman of the Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmaceuticals under the DOH, said yesterday that the book gives clear descriptions of the main substances in 59 kinds of herbs that are commonly used in Chinese medicine.
According to Lin, there are 297 kinds of herbs frequently used in Chinese medicinal formulas.
The committee has also invited researchers in Chinese medicine to produce extracts of the main substances of various herbs. Pharmaceutical companies and health-food manufacturers may purchase the extracted substances from the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB).
Statistics compiled by the Industrial Technology Intelligence Services (ITIS) indicate that the international market for remedial herbs continues to grow and that the market's value for this year is estimated to be US$23 billion.
The ITIS says that the domestic market for remedial herbs is estimated to be worth between NT$15 billion and NT$25 billion.
The market for traditional Chinese medicine accounts for 7 percent of the total and the market for scientifically-formulated medicine accounts for 13 percent of the total.
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