Formerly a government employee, successful in the private sector: Part 8 - Green startup pharmacist

Ms. Hue spends a lot of time researching medicinal herbs.

Passion

Ms. Hue comes from a family with many generations of traditional medicine. During her childhood, seeing her parents diligently and meticulously preparing medicine with natural herbs, she developed a love and passion for medicinal plants.

Following her father's career, Ms. Hue studied at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Thanh Tay University (now Phenikaa University, Hanoi).

During her university years, Ms. Hue always diligently improved her knowledge and achieved the title of excellent student throughout the course. After graduating in 2004, she worked at Tu Ky District General Hospital (now Tu Ky District Medical Center).

During her work, in addition to her professional work, Ms. Hue also consulted with hospital leaders to regularly organize communication sessions for patients. She prepared documents and read them on the hospital loudspeaker to disseminate information about the signs, treatment methods, and ways to prevent many diseases. Ms. Hue shared: “Patients and their families received the information and asked questions that they wanted to be answered, which gave me more motivation to stick with this job for many years.”

Her passion for medicinal herbs has never waned, so even though her work at the hospital is very busy, when she comes home, Ms. Hue still arranges time to research methods for extracting essential oils from available ingredients such as grapefruit, orange, five-color, and perilla.

“I spend a lot of time researching and learning about grapefruit because according to traditional medicine, this is a medicinal herb with many uses and values. However, in reality, in many grapefruit gardens, I see that grapefruit is discarded due to its small size, not being sold in large quantities, which is a waste,” said Ms. Hue.

Ms. Hue extracts grapefruit essential oil (photo provided by character)

Due to lack of time, difficulty in in-depth research, and difficulty in pursuing her passion, Ms. Hue has considered quitting her job at the hospital. She wants to devote all her energy to extracting essential oils and turning them into products that benefit the community.

Many nights, Ms. Hue was restless. Of course, she could not avoid hesitation because at that time, the work in the state sector was stable, suitable for women because they had time to take care of their families. If she left, she would face many difficulties, challenges, and even failure.

Her decision also met with opposition from her family and relatives, but more than anyone else, Ms. Hue understood that with her burning passion and countless cherished plans, if she did not make a bold decision, she would not have the opportunity to develop her abilities, strengths, and unleash her creativity. In 2018, Ms. Hue decided to quit her job at the hospital after 14 years of working there.

After quitting her job, Ms. Hue went to Korea to study health care and beauty. She also studied physical therapy at the Central Acupuncture Institute and traveled to several provinces and cities to study and experience. Through each course and each trip, she determined her own direction more clearly.

Desire to create value for the community

Ms. Hue discussed with staff about business strategy and expanding product consumption market .

In 2019, Ms. Hue founded Thanh Hue Perfect Health Company Limited and took on the role of director, with the desire to create health care and beauty products that are completely natural and available in her homeland.

Since she started experimenting with essential oil extraction, she has gained some experience. For some fruits such as grapefruit and citrus, extracting essential oil is not too complicated, however, for some flowers and leaves such as roses, grapefruit flowers, betel leaves, perilla... it is difficult, requiring patience and meticulousness.

Ms. Hue recalls the time when she found a way to extract essential oil from betel leaves. According to traditional medicine, betel leaves have many uses such as pain relief, treating acne, itching, etc. However, the traditional method is still to boil the leaves to get the water to soak or crush them to apply on the body.

After soaking, applying betel leaves often leaves dark spots on the body, causing loss of aesthetics. Therefore, Ms. Hue has researched to filter out the resin in betel leaves. During 8 months of research and practice, she has had to throw away the ingredients countless times because of failure. However, she has never thought of giving up, but is always determined and confident that she will succeed.

And finally, her efforts were rewarded when she successfully filtered and removed the resin from the betel leaves, obtaining a clear solution that still maintained the medicinal properties of this herb. “When I successfully extracted the essential oil from betel leaves, I was so happy that I couldn’t sleep. This is also the key to using this essence as a natural preservative for future products,” said Ms. Hue, her eyes shining.

Continuously learning, Ms. Hue also sought out some leading experts in nanotechnology to embark on scientific research. With the guidance and mentorship of her teachers, Ms. Hue accumulated knowledge and succeeded in creating products from the integration of organic nanotechnology with herbal enzymes and natural essential oils to create very different organic products. These products do not use preservatives but can be stored for more than 3 years, do not use thickeners but are still thick.

Leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and the Provincial Women's Union congratulated Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Hue on winning the consolation prize in the 2023 National "Women Start-ups, Promoting Indigenous Resources" Contest (documentary photo)

In 2023, Ms. Hue participated in the national "Women's Entrepreneurship, Promoting Local Resources" Contest with the Project "Improving production capacity and promoting the commercialization of some health care products of natural origin". She researched and produced beauty and health care products with natural ingredients such as grapefruit essential oil, betel leaf, lemongrass, lemon, cinnamon, five-color, perilla, avocado, cereals... These are environmentally friendly products, capable of developing, expanding and effectively exploiting ingredients from her hometown of Hai Duong. This project won an encouragement prize, further motivating Ms. Hue to continue her research work.

Thanh Hue Perfect Health Company Limited has medicinal herb growing areas in Hai Duong, Hoa Binh, Bac Giang (photo provided by the character)

Thanh Hue Perfect Health Company Limited has cooperated to create some medicinal herb growing areas in Hai Duong and some localities such as Hoa Binh, Bac Giang to have a guaranteed source of raw materials, a closed cycle from growing raw materials to manufacturing and distributing products. Market access for young businesses also faces many difficulties. As a business owner, Ms. Hue has actively listened to customer reviews and feedback to continue to improve the product.

Currently, Thanh Hue Perfect Health Company Limited's products serve a variety of customer groups from young people to middle-aged and elderly people. These include health care products such as joint pain relief, nutritional cereals; beauty products such as aloe vera shampoo - grapefruit, avocado - grapefruit - coconut hair conditioner, pure grapefruit essential oil... Ms. Hue also actively participates in the "One Commune One Product" (OCOP) program and currently, the company has 5 products certified with 3-star OCOP. Next April will be the time when the company launches a series of products manufactured using nanotechnology, without using preservatives, to the market.

With her tireless efforts, Ms. Hue has been awarded at all levels such as a certificate of merit from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Oriental Medicine Association in 2020, the Provincial Women's Union commended women for being good at production and business, and outstanding women entrepreneurs in 2024...

When asked what is important to make the success like today, Ms. Hue said that determining one's strengths, setting goals, dreams and striving to pursue them to the end is the most important thing. "I chose the right career and was chosen by the career. I have never regretted the decisions I made. I always believe that if I make an effort and persistently pursue my passion, I will surely succeed and bring useful values ​​to the community," Ms. Hue confided.

HUYEN TRANG

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/tung-la-nguoi-nha-nuoc-thanh-cong-o-khu-vuc-tu-bai-8-duoc-si-khoi-nghiep-xanh-408192.html