The 20th century is an important stage in the history of human medical development. Through the continuous practice of medical practitioners, the medical system based on different cultures has been improved. At the same time, during this period, eastern and western medical staff developed (created) a series of classic drugs that have influenced today, and Yunnan Baiyao and penicillin are typical representatives.

They are produced in the soil of two completely different cultures, one to stop bleeding and to heal wounds, and the other to be antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, both of which play an important role in promoting human health and cure countless patients.Today, when we open up the dusty history, there are some amazing similarities between the two, which are worth reading carefully and pondering for a long time.

Two teenagers who came out of misery

In 1880, Qu Huanzhang, the creator of Yunnan Baiyao, was born in Zhaoguan Village, Jiangchuan County, Yunnan Province. In 1881, Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, was born in the Scottish Highlands.They have similar childhood experiences: Qu Huanzhang lost his father at the age of 7 and his mother at the age of 9. He was raised by his grandmother and older sister. At the age of 12, he went to his brother-in-law's house to study traditional Chinese medicine and traumatology; and Fleming, who was thousands of miles away, also He lost his father when he was 7 years old, and went to work in London with his brother who was a practicing doctor when he was 13 years old.

The hardships of life did not make the two mountain teenagers succumb to fate, but created their tough characters.Qu Huanzhang traveled all over Yunnan, learned from Shennong and tasted hundreds of herbs, consulted local folk doctors, and painstakingly studied traumatic prescriptions, accumulating valuable experiences in practice. Fleming actively studied medicine while working for his brother.Finally, at the age of 22, the two ushered in a turning point of fate at the same time.——Qu Huanzhang created the famous Yunnan Baiyao (called "Baibao Dan for Wanying" at that time).——Fleming passed 16 homework exams and was qualified to enter the medical school affiliated to St. Mary's Hospital.One of them asked for the truth from practice and created Yunnan Baiyao; the other finally discovered penicillin through the training of the medical knowledge system in the college system.At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, China lacked doctors and medicines. Once Qu Huanzhang's Yunnan Baiyao came out, it immediately became famous for its miraculous curative effect. Southern Yunnan" and "Sacred Medicine for Traumatology".

In the same year, Qu Huanzhang was coerced to Chongqing by the Kuomintang reactionary forces and was asked to hand over the prescription. On a hot and humid summer, Mr. Qu passed away sadly at the age of 58.Also in 1938, the German chemist Ernst Boris Chain started the purification experiment of penicillin according to Fleming's research. All Allied soldiers who fought during World War II.In 1945, Fleming and Chain shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of penicillin and its clinical utility."

Fleming died in 1955. Also in the public-private partnership the following year, Qu Huanzhang's widow, Miao Lanying, dedicated the Yunnan Baiyao formula to the people's government.

From scarce and expensive to mass-produced and accessible to the people

Now Yunnan Baiyao and penicillin have become affordable and popular drugs, but when the two drugs were just starting to be produced, their prices were unaffordable for ordinary people.In the 1930s, the cheapest small bottle of Yunnan Baiyao was 6 yuan. In the Hankou market in 1933, the price of 100 catties of rice was about 5 yuan. It can be seen that even a small bottle of Yunnan Baiyao can be exchanged for more than 100 catties of rice, which is really unbearable for ordinary families.The price of penicillin is even more exaggerated. In 1944, the use of penicillin to treat a patient "was time-consuming for a month and cost 10,000 dollars". "Although Americans are rich, how can everyone be able to buy this drug like Mr. What?" At this price, even today, ordinary people would be in awe of the medicine.

High prices inevitably lead to people who take risks and take shortcuts, resulting in a flood of counterfeit products on the market.Qu Huanzhang specially made an anti-counterfeiting counterfeit list, endorsed by inscriptions of high-ranking officials and celebrities such as Tang Jiyao, Pan Hannian, Hu Hanmin, etc., and used his avatar as a trademark, but he still couldn't stop the rampant fake goods in the market, even Chen Lifu wrote in his memoirs. With such a sigh, "The Baiyao that Long Yun gave me is indeed the best one." It can be seen that even the Kuomintang bigwigs may not be able to buy the real Baiyao sometimes.

After Miao Lanying offered the recipe, the government designated it to be produced by the Kunming Pharmaceutical Factory, and Yunnan Baiyao said goodbye to the manual workshop production method and realized mass production.In 1970, when the war in the neighboring countries of Southeast Asia was in full swing, Premier Zhou Enlai instructed the establishment of Yunnan Baiyao Factory to specialize in the production of Yunnan Baiyao, which further expanded the scale of industrial production.On June 3, 1958, North China Pharmaceutical Factory mass-produced the first batch of penicillin fermented in large tanks, realizing the mass production of domestic penicillin. The mass production of the two drugs can not only combat the phenomenon of counterfeit products flooding the market, but also reduce the cost of drugs, and truly achieve the purpose of benefiting ordinary people.

The exploration is endless

Time flies.Today, Yunnan Baiyao has developed a series of products on the basis of the original bottle of small powder. The well-known products are Yunnan Baiyao Capsule, Yunnan Baiyao Band-Aid, Yunnan Baiyao Paste, Yunnan Baiyao Aerosol, Yunnan Baiyao Toothpaste and other products.Penicillin has also developed a 3-generation product system from the original first-generation natural penicillin, and the treatment scope has covered pneumonia, meningitis, endocarditis, diphtheria, anthrax and other diseases.

Today, we have clarified the pharmacological efficacy of penicillin, and the molecular structure of penicillin. Because of its high efficiency and low toxicity, it has become an important antibiotic widely used in clinical practice. At the same time, the research on Yunnan Baiyao with complex ingredients is also deepening.

Yunnan Baiyao is known to the world for its hemostasis, healing, and anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown that because it contains a variety of active ingredients and has complex pharmacological effects, in addition to the above functions, it can also increase myocardial nutritional blood volume, increase immune function and fight cancer. The most amazing thing is that the coagulation factor contained in Yunnan Baiyao, in addition to the hemostatic effect, can also promote blood circulation. At the same time, it concentrates two opposite functions of two-way regulation, which can not only quickly stop bleeding and reduce inflammation, but also effectively promote blood circulation and heal wounds.

Because of this, in 2004, Nobel Prize winners Hartmut Michel and Norman Borlaug proposed research intentions when they visited Yunnan Baiyao. After the formula was listed in the national secret formula, it has been under the strict protection of national secret regulations, so it has not been able to carry out follow-up cooperation.

The formula confidentiality work has strict legal and institutional regulations, management procedures and preventive mechanisms. The ownership and control rights belong to the state and are strictly regulated by national confidentiality regulations. The enterprise only has the right to use it, and no shareholder has the right to own, dispose and use the secret formula.