The boat dock of commune 2, Phong Loi Village, Moc Hoa, Long An Province is already in the border. However, it took the writer nearly an hour on the sampan to come to the Dong Thap Muoi Pharmaceutical Preservation and Research Center.
There lives scientist Nguyen Van Be, who spent nearly 25 years in solitude to research and build a pharmaceutical center of a scale of South East Asia.
Mr. Junkman and his 25 years in the forest
In this area, Nguyen Van Be, holding a master degree in pharmaceutical, is known by many informal names, most popular being “Mr. Ba of the alum land” and most recent “Mr. Ba the Junkman”. He is nothing different from a normal farmer with his shirt turning yellow, his bare feet, and suntan.
When we came, he was finishing the last stage for his extraction pumping system with the new-technology machines invented by his team. Working next to the machine are farmers in Dong Thap Muoi, who were peeling saffron and garlic, and putting them into large heaps. He smiled satisfactorily.
He explained, “Growing these is hard work, but farmers do not make much profit selling them. We have helped them by placing larger orders annually, buying tons of garlic and saffron to produce medicine.” Those medicines, researched and produced by him like Garlic Film, have been used in fighting infection, hypertension, diabetes, coronary thrombosis, aortosclerosis.
Ginger has been used to produce Ninon, which helps in indigestion and nausea. He named the medicines in such a way that people could understand and remember easily. He wants to make use of wastes, which explains his collection of the leftover in the field after the harvest for research and production. Because of this, he was nicknamed Mr. Junkman.
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During the years in the forest to research the improvement of waste land, he had a lot of failures when adopting the bookish knowledge. Then he learned one thing not included in any textbook, which is that the folk sayings and proverbs prove to be of great value.
He said, “They are not something to read for fun. They are the experience summarized by many generations, which is a great asset of Viet Nam.” He quoted an example of the saying “First water, second fertilizer, third labor and four seedling”, which he adopted to solve the problem of clean water supply by a system of canals for the land contaminated with alum.
The seedlings should be made to suit the land, not the opposite. He was successful in planting the sweet grass on the alum land, which is a nearly impossible task. The grass can be used for the extraction of steviosid. His work was much appreciated by the State-level Scientific Committee.
In the open air of the Mekong Delta, his guests were invited to taste the Malaysian jackfruit, which he grew locally. It is incredible to have such good fruit in this alum land. He was also the first one who planned the intensive growing model to extract papain, a chemical used in pharmaceutical industry and export. Few people know that for nearly a quarter of a century, he was one of the seven suppliers of aromatic spices for the famous medical oil producer Eagle.
Happiness to the flooded land
In the past years, many generations of bio-pharmaceutical and medical students knew of his pharmaceutical preservation area in Dong Thap Muoi as a living dictionary for their research. He also helped foreign students in their study. He always took them to field trips, experiencing the real hardship of the farmers. He stresses on their learning from first-hand experience.
He has had a habit of self-teaching since a very young age. After the liberation of the country, he studied in the Pharmaceutical Department of Ho Chi Minh City Medical and Pharmaceutical University. When offered a teaching position upon graduation in the university, he proposed the establishment of a pharmaceutical practice and production workshop for students.
He made commercial products, but the operation of the workshop was not approved then. He nurtured his dream until he was assigned to manage the Dong Thap Muoi Pharmaceutical Preservation and Development Center in the early 1980s.
There are still 20 staff members from the old time, who are skillful in operating and fixing hi-tech machinery despite their low education. They have been with him since the beginning and he arranged for their marriages and provided them with well-equipped mobile homes. He is planning to open a technical school there.
He said, “I want the farmers here to have proper education. I want equality for those who have no opportunities for higher education.” He built Huong Tram primary school and is going to finish a well-equipped clinic. These were funded by the Center and his kind-hearted friends in the efforts to help the farmers, who have been close to him for many years, have better care.
His largest happiness is that his two children are doing well in their study. His first son is studying information technology and the younger has just received a scholarship in Singapore by an international talent recruitment. His wife, who also works in the same field, is the most important encouragement to him for almost a quarter of a century of “living in the forest.”
Link to the previous article:
The man who Introduces Vietnamese Forest Creatures to the World
