BAICHENG: Yang Li is busy decorating his new apartment with the extra money he made from selling parts of sunflowers that were previously discarded.
Yang, a farmer from Shuanggang village of Jilin province’s Baicheng city, used to eke out a living selling sunflower seeds from 1ha of farmland. Now, thanks to new technology, he can make an extra 54,000 yuan (RM32,900) a year with sunflower disks – the hard round centre of the plant left over once the sunflower seeds are harvested.
“We never knew the disk could bring in money because even cows don’t like to eat it. Now, I can afford to travel with my wife with our increasing income,” said Yang, 58.
Shuanggang as a whole has benefited from scientific research on sunflower disks. According to Zhao Guo’an, founder of Jilin Teyi Food Biotechnology, the company purchased more than 200 metric tonnes of sunflower disks from Shuanggang last year, which has helped 130 local farmers earn more than 5.2 million yuan (RM3.17mil).
“Small molecular peptides, alkaloids and flavonoids that are effective in treating gout and allaying inflammation can be extracted from sunflower disks,” said Gao Bo, director of the department of biological medicine at Jilin University.
Gao, a Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) graduate, came across sunflower disk treatment by chance.
“I learnt this from Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou, who discovered artemisinin from TCM. I assumed some new drugs could be developed from the little disks,” said Gao.
The past two years proved Gao’s prediction was correct as the team found sunflower disk extractives have a unique effect on reducing uric acid and treating gout.
“The combination of TCM and modern technology will make contributions to people’s welfare around the world,” Gao said. — China Daily/ANN
Yang, a farmer from Shuanggang village of Jilin province’s Baicheng city, used to eke out a living selling sunflower seeds from 1ha of farmland. Now, thanks to new technology, he can make an extra 54,000 yuan (RM32,900) a year with sunflower disks – the hard round centre of the plant left over once the sunflower seeds are harvested.
“We never knew the disk could bring in money because even cows don’t like to eat it. Now, I can afford to travel with my wife with our increasing income,” said Yang, 58.
Shuanggang as a whole has benefited from scientific research on sunflower disks. According to Zhao Guo’an, founder of Jilin Teyi Food Biotechnology, the company purchased more than 200 metric tonnes of sunflower disks from Shuanggang last year, which has helped 130 local farmers earn more than 5.2 million yuan (RM3.17mil).
“Small molecular peptides, alkaloids and flavonoids that are effective in treating gout and allaying inflammation can be extracted from sunflower disks,” said Gao Bo, director of the department of biological medicine at Jilin University.
Gao, a Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) graduate, came across sunflower disk treatment by chance.
“I learnt this from Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou, who discovered artemisinin from TCM. I assumed some new drugs could be developed from the little disks,” said Gao.
The past two years proved Gao’s prediction was correct as the team found sunflower disk extractives have a unique effect on reducing uric acid and treating gout.
“The combination of TCM and modern technology will make contributions to people’s welfare around the world,” Gao said. — China Daily/ANN
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