Ginkgo biloba extract is widely used in the fields of medicines, health products, food additives, functional beverages and cosmetics. The problem discovered by the regulatory authorities during the flight inspection was that some enterprises arbitrarily changed the extraction process, using 3% hydrochloric acid instead of dilute ethanol to prepare Ginkgo biloba extract, and according to national production, it should be extracted with dilute ethanol. According to the State Food and Drug Administration, there is a risk of “decomposing the active ingredients of the drug and affecting the efficacy of the drug” without authorization.
According to reports, the use of 3% hydrochloric acid extraction can not only reduce costs, but also increase the rate and shorten the basic process time. According to Yu Zhibin, the Chinese Medicine Department of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, the use of 3% hydrochloric acid for extraction can save ￥4,000 per ton.
“Ginkgo biloba extract has systemic risks in the market. Once the problem occurs, the drawbacks of the whole industry have been exposed.” According to industry insiders, the incident reflects the risks of the purchased raw materials and the lack of regulatory standards for the plant extract industry. .
Behind this systemic risk, the rapid development of the plant extract market in recent years is also a consensus in the industry. Shi Lichen said: "At present, the domestic market for plant extracts in the pharmaceutical industry is about 20 billion in 2014, about 10 billion in the health care industry, and this data has exploded for five consecutive years, indicating that the market demand for plant extracts is increasing. The higher the rate."
According to statistics from the China Medical Insurance Chamber of Commerce, in terms of exports, in 2014, China's plant extracts exported 1.778 billion US dollars, accounting for 49.48% of China's traditional Chinese medicine exports.
Relevant data also revealed that in 2014, China exported a total of 332 countries and regions to plant extract products, of which Asian, European, North American and other traditional markets ranked first, accounting for 92% of total exports. Among the three continents, ASEAN's performance was particularly eye-catching. The annual export volume reached US$323 million, a year-on-year increase of 74.81%. It also became the main force driving Asia's 38.59% year-on-year growth; the EU and North America also performed well, with exports reaching 3.44 respectively. The annual growth rate of billions and 356 million US dollars exceeded 10 percentage points; although Africa and Latin America accounted for a small share, the growth rate also reached 53.65% and 29.36%.
Some insiders pointed out that at present, the planting industry is developing rapidly and the market scale is expanding rapidly. However, the relevant normative standards of the industry are still very scarce and urgently need to be established. Although the export of plant extract products in China has been on the rise in recent years, its share in the international market is still small, and there is a huge gap between the development of planting industry in Japan and South Korea. The international status of plant extracting products and the traditional power of plant medicine The serious mismatch of the identity, improve the industry entry threshold, the development of planting product standards, and achieve sustainable development of the industry is imminent.
However, in Shi Lichen's view, the domestic extract market is not a problem without industry standards, but the implementation of the company is not enough. "From the current point of view, the punitive measures are mainly the recall of the drugs involved, and the deterrence of the enterprises is not great. The low cost of violations has led many companies to ignore the industry standards," Shi Lichen said.
