As people rushed to hunt anoectochilus setaceus in the forest,threatening its survival, a farmer in Dak Nong province was able tosuccessfully grow the orchid species in his garden, the English languagenews website VietNamNet Bridge reported on July 30.
The woodenhouse of Le Minh Hoang and Le Thi Sang in Dak Som commune of Dak Nongprovince has been used as a family laboratory. There are manyexperimental tools and orchid vases with notes about plant growing.
Twentyyears ago, Hoang was an orchid trader. He saw people going to theforest to look for anoectochilus setaceus to sell for 20,000 VND perkilo of fresh orchid and he decided to act as intermediary collectingorchids to resell to merchants.
His business was prosperous asthe demand for the orchid plant was very high. Anoectochilus setaceus isa precious medicinal herb which can help treat many diseases.
However, the good days did not last forever. Anoectochilus setaceus has been exhausted as a result of overexploitation.
Noone can exploit anoectochilus setaceus more to sell to Hoang now, eventhough the price has escalated to 1.5 million VND per kilo.
Hoang decided to grow anoectochilus setaceus himself, though he still had doubts if the orchids could help treat diseases.
Buthe was later convinced about the medicinal features of the orchidspecies. “I boiled the orchid leaves in water or soaked them in liquor.Once I was too tired after working hard in the rice field and my legswere flagging, I drank the orchid leaf broth and I had a full recoveryimmediately,” he said.
However, the first step was the hardest.The saplings he grafted all died. Then Hoang tried to grow the orchidplants in different environmental conditions.
“We tried everymethod we thought would help the plants grow and we tried differentkinds of fertilization,” Hoang said. “We realized that anoectochilussetaceus can only grow in conditions similar to the naturalenvironment.”
After coming to an important conclusion, Hoang and his wife started to improve the soil in the garden and grow orchids.
Todate, they have successfully grown 250,000 vases of anoectochilussetaceus in their garden, covering an area of 2,000 square metres. It isestimated that the orchid garden is worth several billions of dong.
“Mywife and I are both 65 years old, but we are still strong and can workin rice fields every day. This is because we usually drink anoectochilussetaceus extract and eat anoectochilus setaceus leaves as food,” hesaid.
“I wish to see the precious herb grown on a large scale in Vietnam, so that more and more patients can be treated,” he added.
BuiDinh Thanh from the Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Biology Instituteconfirmed that anoectochilus setaceus has valuable active ingredientswhich can be used to make medicine.
Thanh said growing andpreserving the plants is a goal of scientists. “We have contacted Hoangand asked him to discuss a project on developing herb growing areas toserve domestic and international demand,” Thanh said.-VNA
The woodenhouse of Le Minh Hoang and Le Thi Sang in Dak Som commune of Dak Nongprovince has been used as a family laboratory. There are manyexperimental tools and orchid vases with notes about plant growing.
Twentyyears ago, Hoang was an orchid trader. He saw people going to theforest to look for anoectochilus setaceus to sell for 20,000 VND perkilo of fresh orchid and he decided to act as intermediary collectingorchids to resell to merchants.
His business was prosperous asthe demand for the orchid plant was very high. Anoectochilus setaceus isa precious medicinal herb which can help treat many diseases.
However, the good days did not last forever. Anoectochilus setaceus has been exhausted as a result of overexploitation.
Noone can exploit anoectochilus setaceus more to sell to Hoang now, eventhough the price has escalated to 1.5 million VND per kilo.
Hoang decided to grow anoectochilus setaceus himself, though he still had doubts if the orchids could help treat diseases.
Buthe was later convinced about the medicinal features of the orchidspecies. “I boiled the orchid leaves in water or soaked them in liquor.Once I was too tired after working hard in the rice field and my legswere flagging, I drank the orchid leaf broth and I had a full recoveryimmediately,” he said.
However, the first step was the hardest.The saplings he grafted all died. Then Hoang tried to grow the orchidplants in different environmental conditions.
“We tried everymethod we thought would help the plants grow and we tried differentkinds of fertilization,” Hoang said. “We realized that anoectochilussetaceus can only grow in conditions similar to the naturalenvironment.”
After coming to an important conclusion, Hoang and his wife started to improve the soil in the garden and grow orchids.
Todate, they have successfully grown 250,000 vases of anoectochilussetaceus in their garden, covering an area of 2,000 square metres. It isestimated that the orchid garden is worth several billions of dong.
“Mywife and I are both 65 years old, but we are still strong and can workin rice fields every day. This is because we usually drink anoectochilussetaceus extract and eat anoectochilus setaceus leaves as food,” hesaid.
“I wish to see the precious herb grown on a large scale in Vietnam, so that more and more patients can be treated,” he added.
BuiDinh Thanh from the Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Biology Instituteconfirmed that anoectochilus setaceus has valuable active ingredientswhich can be used to make medicine.
Thanh said growing andpreserving the plants is a goal of scientists. “We have contacted Hoangand asked him to discuss a project on developing herb growing areas toserve domestic and international demand,” Thanh said.-VNA
