China has rich varieties of natural TCM material resources. According to the survey results of the nearly 10-year China’s national survey on Chinese materia medica resources organized by China National of Traditional & Herbal Medicine Co., Ltd. and the office for the national survey on Chinese materia medica resources, currently there are 12,807 medicinal plants, animals and minerals in China, wherein, there are more than 11,146 medicinal plants, 1,581 medicinal animals, and 80 medicinal minerals; 362 common medicinal materials were surveyed, including 320 bulk plant medicinal minerals and 29 animal medicinal minerals, of which the total reserves of wild resources are about 8.50 million tons.

Astonishing price rise

China has quite rich wild medicinal material resources, but the disordered harvesting and excessive hunting are quite serious. The wild resources of some medicinal materials continue to shrink after long-term disordered harvesting, and the prices thereof continue to rise due to sharp decline of the production. For example, price of the antelope's horn is about RMB 300/kg (same below) in 2005, and the current market price thereof has risen to above RMB 8,000; price of the natural bezoar was around RMB 90,000 in 2004, but rose to RMB 170,000 in 2012; market price of the ophiocordyceps sinensis was RMB 28,000 (3,500 pieces) in 2005, and rose to RMB 150,000 in 2013; price of the scorpion fluctuated around RMB 500 (clear water) in 2005, and rose to RMB 2,300 in 2013; price of the leech was around RMB 200 (clear water) in 2008, and rose to above RMB 1,200 in 2015; price of Paris polyphylla fluctuated around RMB 45 in 2005, and has risen to RMB 960 today; price of common bletilla pseudobulb was around RMB 36 in 2006, and has now risen to RMB 850; price of Pleione bulbocodioides was around RMB 45 in 2006, and has now risen to RMB 520; price of fritillaria cirrhosa was around RMB 500 (fritillaria cirrhosa) in 2005, and rose to RMB 3,900 in 2016; price of mantis egg-case was around RMB 110 (processed), and rose to RMB 580 in 2016; price of nidus vespae was around RMB 32 (piece) in 2001, and has now risen to RMB 400; price of periostracum cicadae fluctuated around RMB 45 in 2009, and has now risen to RMB 330; price of gecko was around RMB 85 in 2004, and rose to RMB 600 in 2016.

We can easily see from the price changes of the above medicinal materials over the dozen years that the price rise is astonishing. The above are only the representative varieties, and other wild medicinal materials also have big changes in price over the dozen years, such as notopterygium root, edible tulip bulb, atractylodes, red peony root, dictamni cortex, clematis chinensis, cortex lycii radicis, rubia cordifolia, manyprickle acanthopanax root, subprostrate sophora root, rhizoma imperatae, sophora flavescens, radix stephaniae tetrandrae, rhizoma anemones altaicae, acorus tatarinowii, rosa laevigata, cistanche salsa, cynomorium, herba artemisiae scopariae, dandelion, herba violae, fructus viticis, semen lepidii, semiaquilegia adoxoides, Tetrapanax papyriferus, aspongopus, gadfly, centipede, mylabris, polyporus umbellatus, and Lobelia clavata E. Wimm., etc.

Serious resource shortage

During the price rise, prices of many wild medicinal materials dropped but continued to rise after a period of adjustment, and the overall trend is rise. The main reason for the continuous rise of prices of wild medicinal materials lies in the ongoing reduction of resources. Blind harvesting and "draining the pond to get all the fish" result in most wild medicinal materials to face serious resource shortage and even exhaustion.

Some wild medicinal materials have been heavily harvested with the increasing demand for the traditional Chinese medicinal materials, and some varieties have been endangered. Therefore, China’s State Council issued the Regulation on Protection of Wild Medicinal Resources early in 1987, but it fails to change the situation that wild medicinal materials are increasingly destructed.

Stimulated by resource reduction and price rise, some medicinal materials become less and less, for example, thousands of tons of subprostrate sophora root could be harvested every year 6 years ago, only 200-300 tons could be harvested in recent years, and many are imported from neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Nepal. The case is the same for the medicinal materials such as common bletilla pseudobulb, radix stephaniae tetrandrae and dictamni cortex with decreasing wild resources.

The living space of wild medicinal materials has become smaller and smaller in recent years, such as nidus vespae, periostracum cicadae, dandelion, and herba violae, as some waste mountains and benchland and abandoned fields are reclaimed with the rapid economic development and improvement of people’s living environment. And the heavy use of pesticide and herbicide has caused some medicinal materials to suffer catastrophe, such as rhizoma cyperi, grub, mole cricket, cricket, and Lobelia clavata E. Wimm.

Wild medicinal materials have constantly suffered the destructive harvesting with resources becoming fewer and fewer, which is worrying. Not considering factors such as ecological environment deterioration, and irrational resource utilization, the destructive harvesting driven by economic benefits is the main reason for the increasing exhaustion of the wild medicinal material resources. Even if wild medicinal materials are not seriously destructed, the recovery time will take about 3-5 years, if not 10-20 years.

Among the wild medicinal material resources frequently destructed in recent years, the varieties with production decreasing year by year include common bletilla pseudobulb, leech, polyporus umbellatus, radix stephaniae tetrandrae, polygonatum kingianum, edible tulip, edible tulip bulb, aspongopus, gecko, gadfly, cortex lycii radicis, rubia cordifolia, cortex acanthopanacis, herba pyrrosiae, Japanese ampelopsis root, wild Ranunculus ternatus, mantis egg-case, subprostrate sophora root, dendrobium, sanders, dalbergia odorifera, cistanche salsa, cynomorium, dictamni cortex, atractylodes, red peony root, and clematis chinensis, etc.

China is accelerating the urbanization, and more peasants settle in cities, therefore, the people harvesting wild medicinal materials become fewer and fewer. And few people harvest low-price medicinal materials as the labor cost increases. Perhaps, some medicinal materials will disappear because no one harvests them 10 years or 20 years later. By that time, it is impossible to predict how high the prices of wild medicinal materials will rise. Therefore, in my opinion, the prices of wild medicinal materials will still rise in the future, with the continuous shrinkage of wild medicinal material resources and decrease of harvesting people.

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