(Peoples Daily Online)09:48, June 18, 2019
A Russian patient receives physiotherapy at Tanggangzi Hospital in Anshan, northeast Chinas Liaoning Province, June 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)
Artemisinin and other traditional Chinese medicine scientific research works written by Chinese researchers will be included in the sixth edition of Oxford Textbook of Medicine for the first time according to China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, China News Service reported on June 17.
The industry believes that the inclusion into an international textbook of medicine will become an important practical achievement for traditional Chinese medicine culture’s going global.
“Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is not a gift for Chinese alone,” said Chinas pharmacologist Tu Youyou who received the 2015 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the antimalarial artesiminin.
“It should contribute Chinese wisdom, experience and solutions to human health,” said the Nobel Laureate.
According to Liao Fulong, a member of Tu’s research team, the chapter titled “Model of Traditional Chinese Medicine – Traditional Chinese Medicine” has been finalized. It is divided into four parts, explaining what traditional medicine, its mechanism and clinical applications are, and how traditional Chinese medicine including artemisinin was discovered.
In April this year, Oxford University Press, the publisher of the book, started proofreading and will reprint it in the second half of this year.
Professor Timothy M. Cox, editor-in-chief of the sixth edition of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, was pleased to see traditional Chinese medicine treatises’ inclusion in the textbook.
He said that the chapter regarding traditional Chinese medicine is both important and profound. All this is the result of the outstanding efforts of Chinese scientists.
Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, holds the view that Tu Youyou and her team have built a bridge between traditional medicine and modern medicine.
Now the TCM therapy is not only widely used in China, but also recognized by more and more countries for its effective treatment. It is hoped that Chinese scientists will continue to have more of a voice in the international arena of artemisinin research, said Alonso.