(Dan Tri) - Ha Huong Tra, a Tay ethnic group, and Mac Phuong Dung, a San Diu ethnic group, who are studying in grade 11 at Phu Thong High School, Bac Kan, won the national startup idea award with a product to treat prickly heat from herbs in their home garden.
Mac Phuong Dung and Ha Huong Tra are two authors of the project "Supply chain and business of products to prevent and treat prickly heat for children from home-grown herbs".
Their product won the consolation prize in the 2024 Science/Startup Ideas Contest for High School Students, and was also one of 47 products participating in the National Creative Youth Festival.
It is worth mentioning that both of them are only 16 years old, 11th grade students at Phu Thong High School, Bach Thong District, Bac Kan Province.
Bach Thong district, where the two children live, is about 20km from Bac Kan city center and about 50km from Ba Be lake. Tra is Tay and Dung is San Diu. The surrounding community is mostly Tay, Nung, Dao, and H'Mong.
The idea of making medicine to treat prickly heat for children from herbs in the home garden comes from the love of biology that Ms. Ngo Thi Hien - Dung and Tra's homeroom teacher - passed on to the children.
"We all study social studies, and our homeroom teacher teaches biology. She is so good and knowledgeable that we went from knowing nothing about biology to loving this subject very much," Tra shared.
Tra and Dung at the ceremony to honor outstanding and exemplary ethnic minority students and youth in 2024 (Photo: NVCC).
Ms. Hien was the one who found out about the Startup Idea Competition and "invited" students to participate. Under her suggestion, Dung and Tra began to research and survey the reality.
Observing the community around where they live, the two female students noticed a common problem for children aged 1-2 years old: prickly heat. Although it is only a benign skin disease that can heal on its own, prickly heat makes children itchy and uncomfortable. In many cases, children cry, refuse to breastfeed, refuse to eat, and have trouble sleeping due to itching. Older children may scratch the itchy rash a lot, leading to skin scratches and dermatitis.
Dung and Tra came up with the idea of making a medicine to treat prickly heat using herbs from their garden. When the two students proposed the idea, Ms. Hien immediately supported it.
Not knowing much about medicinal plants, the teacher instructed the two students on the uses of each type and the active ingredients in each type. Most of them were common plants grown locally. Using their scientific knowledge, Tra and Dung analyzed the ingredients, tested the combination of herbs, and tested the mixing ratios.
After many experiments, the students decided to use 5 types: bitter melon, perilla, lemongrass, basil and guava leaves. The mixing ratio is 1:1:1:1:1. The ingredients are picked fresh, choosing the leaves that are not too old or too young. The lemongrass leaves are peeled off. The bitter melon is chosen to be medium sized and free of worms.
Dung said that except for the basil, which was not abundant and had to be asked from neighbors, the students picked the remaining four types right in their own gardens. They cleaned and dried the ingredients and asked their homeroom teacher to bring them to Bac Kan city to dry and grind because Bach Thong did not have these specialized machines.
After all the ingredients were dried and crushed, the two female students packaged the product. The fabric used to make the filter bags was ordered online. The ingredients were divided into the filter bags according to the dosage needed for one bath. Each product package had 10 filter bags, enough for 10 baths.
The volunteer customers for the two children were Tra's nieces. The baby bathed in the leaves for 10 days and the rash was significantly reduced. By the 30th day, most of the rash had disappeared. The two children also asked people around to try it and gave positive feedback after 10 days of use. The reliable test results helped Tra and Dung boldly submit the product to the competition.
Surpassing thousands of products to be among 29 winning ideas nationwide is an unexpected success for two 11th grade female students.
"During the entire project, Ms. Hien supported us a lot. Her house is in the city, she travels back and forth more than 40 kilometers every day, so we cannot always contact her. However, as soon as we pick up the phone, she replies to messages immediately.
She also helped us bring the product for testing. The Center for Testing Drugs, Cosmetics, and Food under the Department of Health of Bac Kan province concluded: The tested sample of herbal shampoo for bathing and treating prickly heat for children met the quality requirements, the tested indicators were according to ASEAN standards," Dung shared.
Mac Phuong Dung with product packages produced by her and Tra (Photo: NVCC).
From a contest product, Tra and Dung decided to sell it commercially. They set the price, then opened a TikTok channel to sell the product. The herbal bath package to treat prickly heat is sold for 60,000 VND. However, Tra honestly said that they have not sold much because they do not know how to make their clip trend.
"Every time we go to Hanoi to participate in events, we bring our products to promote them. The farthest customer we sell to on such occasions is a man in Gia Lai," Tra said.
Their goal is to popularize the product so that it can promote local agricultural production.
Tra and Dung both chose social studies when they entered 10th grade. But now they have both changed their direction. Determined to take the high school graduation exam with 4 subjects: math, literature, biology and history, Tra knows that there will be few majors for her to choose from. However, she believes that pursuing biology is the right and most interesting path for her.
Tra hopes to study biology to return to her hometown to become a biology teacher, passing on her love and passion for studying the plant world like Ms. Hien did to her students. Meanwhile, Dung aims to study abroad in China.
Sharing about her two students, Ms. Ngo Thi Hien told Dan Tri reporter: "Tra and Dung are very passionate about scientific research. To do scientific research, they need a lot of knowledge about natural sciences, which is somewhat difficult for social science students.
However, the two of them kept trying and did the project with all their love and passion. There was never a time when I did not see their enthusiasm and enjoyment throughout the project.
Their products have been quality tested and proven effective on a number of local users. They want to join me in conquering many other herbal products in the future."
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/chuyen-chua-ke-ve-hai-nu-sinh-san-xuat-thuoc-tri-rom-doat-giai-khoi-nghiep-20250125140954052.htm
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