As the first housekeeper to grow and process medicinal chrysanthemums in Nghia Trai Village, Van Lam (Hung Yen), Ms. Cao Thi Minh Nguyet supplies over 2 tons of hygienically dried medicinal herbs of chrysanthemum to the market every year. Ms. Nguyet said her family has been cultivating and processing Vietnamese medicines, including yellow-flowered chrysanthemums, for 6 generations. However, Ms. Nguyet has only been using an electric machine to dry and process medicinal chrysanthemums since 2016.

The reason Ms. Nguyet urged Ms. Nguyet to use an electric oven/cabinet for processing medicinal herbs was because she received an instruction to buy clean dried chrysanthemum flowers asking not to use sulfur (sulphur) for the processing or preservation. On the other hand, in the traditional way of processing chrysanthemum flowers, it is necessary to burn sulfur to gain heat to ripen fresh chrysanthemum flowers. During the burning process of sulfur, sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) is produced, which is unpleasant and has a very strong odor. If you don’t wear proper protective equipment, people who breathe in may sneeze, have a runny nose, cough, or cry tears.

Based on the above fact, Nguyet decided to deposit 300 million dong to immediately purchase 2 electric chrysanthemum drying cabinets with a capacity of 125kg products/oven. Accordingly, Nguyet has nearly 28 kg of dried chrysanthemum flowers every 12 hours every chrysanthemum harvesting season. In addition to processing chrysanthemums according to the family’s plan, Nguyet also provides drying and processing services to other households in the village.

According to Ms. Nguyet, processing chrysanthemums with an electric drying oven has the outstanding advantage over the traditional method in that it is not dependent on the weather like processing dried chrysanthemums; shorten the drying time from 4-6 days to 1/2 day. The entire process of drying and processing chrysanthemums is completed in a control cabinet, which prevents medicinal herbs from getting dust from the air.

In particular, by not using matches to burn and steam the chrysanthemums, it is possible to avoid the risk of unhygienic and safe medicinal herbs and not directly affect workers’ health. In addition, electrically dried chrysanthemum leaves are not sticky, do not discolor, retain the valuable medicinal properties and characteristic aroma of yellow chrysanthemum flowers.

Due to the processing of chrysanthemum flowers by electric machines, Ms. Nguyet’s yellow chrysanthemum products have been recognized by the Hung Yen Ministry of Health as “Good Practice in the Distribution of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients – BIP” and by the National Intellectual Property Office (IP).Ministry of Science and Technology) since 2016 has granted protection of the rights to geographical indications dried chrysanthemum products sold on the market at the same time. After deducting the cost of electricity and machine depreciation, the profit still increased by 70% compared to the traditional way of processing chrysanthemums.

In order for chrysanthemum products to always meet GDP standards, Nguyet has to order raw materials for processing from households that meet VietGAP standards every year, with the purchase price increasing by 30% compared to other households at the time. In which, in order not to use chemical pesticides, the urea-nitrogen fertilizer is limited, the more manure used, the more microbial organic fertilizer is recommended.

Ms. Nguyet revealed that chrysanthemum flowers purchased from fields fertilized with organic fertilizers shrink significantly less after processing, the quality of medicinal herbs is also much better, more beautiful, more fragrant.

Ms Nguyet said that in the years when she used matches to dry chrysanthemums, she only hoped it would be sunny during harvest time. Due to the rainy weather, timely picking or drying of chrysanthemums, the quality is reduced, it is difficult to sell. At these times people are always hot, as if they were sitting on a fire. Since the switch to electric drying and processing of chrysanthemums, the above concerns have basically disappeared. Even if chrysanthemums are picked in the rain or walk in the rain, they can still be made into electrical machines.

In addition to growing and processing medicinal chrysanthemum flowers, Nguyet is known to purchase, process and transship more than 100 tons of other medicinal herbs from places in the country, including perilla, marjoram, patchouli, core gas and local herbs, radial compound, cassava creeper, buckhorn , Clover, Oxsock, Sweet Grass, Noi Son, Black Turmeric…

Seeing Ms. Nguyet processing clean medicinal chrysanthemums and making higher profits, some households in the village also started to follow them, leasing production fields from other communities in the district to grow medicinal chrysanthemums, and then investing in cabinets, electricity, drying and processing Chrysanthemums and other medicinal herbs towards “Good Practice in Distribution of Medicinal Products and Medicinal Ingredients – GDP”.

Ms. Nguyet said that our country’s farmers have always used sulfur to dry and process chrysanthemum flowers, how its use affects human health, so far there have been no specific recommendations. But switching from this traditional drying technology to electric drying will be fully assured in terms of hygiene and safety of medicinal herbs.

“The model of growing and processing chrysanthemums in particular and medicinal plants in general of Ms. Nguyet’s family not only helps 3-4 workers in the village to get stable jobs and income, but also contributes to the promotion of the traditional handicraft village of Nam Nghia The medical system of Trai is developing more and more sustainably,” commented Ms. Cao Thi Le, Head of Nghia Trai Village.