Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Vu Duc Loi, Deputy Director in charge of VKIST, said: Vietnam has very rich and diverse plant resources, which are being researched in many different fields. Currently, VKIST is focusing on two research fields related to Vietnam's flora: environmental technology and pharmaceutical cosmetics.

Vietnam has participated in exporting many types of medicinal herbs such as: cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, turmeric... The total export value of cinnamon and star anise is constantly increasing, reaching 276 million USD in 2022. However, this number is still small compared to the global medicinal herb market share. That means Vietnam has a lot of potential and advantages to develop medicinal herbs into a technical economic sector.

Overview of the workshop.

Dr. Vu Duc Loi hopes that through the workshop, Vietnamese businesses and researchers will be updated with the latest information from the speakers. In addition, Vietnamese businesses and researchers will find a common voice in cooperation in product research as well as developing a commercialization system in Vietnam. Currently, VKIST and KIST are also collaborating in research and have joint projects on this topic and have achieved very positive results.

The workshop was divided into two parallel sessions. Session 1 focused on “Developing absorbents derived from active Lignin for water treatment and metal recovery from agricultural by-products in Vietnam”. Session 2 focused on “Developing health care products from Vietnamese herbs”.

News and photos: LA DUY

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