Restorer of a rare medicinal plant on Khanh Hoa's mountain

A miraculous remedy that saved lives

Returning to the foothills of Hon Heo mountain in Hoa Thang Ward, Khanh Hoa Province, I had the opportunity to meet Tran Ba Ninh, Director of Ba Ninh Company Limited and Chairman of the Khanh Hoa Medicinal Plant Association. Over a pot of fragrant Paramignya trimera tea, Ninh reflected on his journey to preserve this endemic plant, which began with a rare twist of fate.

In April 2011, a local resident suffering from end-stage liver cancer was sent home by the hospital. In desperation, a friend working on the Ninh Phuoc-Ninh Van road project suggested that he try decocting a wild plant (Paramignya trimera) found on the mountain and drinking the resulting herbal infusion. Remarkably, after persistently using the plant for some time, his health reportedly improved significantly, and the tumor shrank, leaving doctors astonished.

By July 2011, the news had spread widely, triggering a “fever” over the plant. People from across the region flocked to Hon Heo mountain to dig up Paramignya trimera. Along the road from Ninh Thuy to Ninh Van, hundreds of people were regularly involved in buying and selling the plant. Vehicles from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi poured into the area to compete for supplies. Faced with indiscriminate and destructive harvesting, the endemic plant was at serious risk of disappearing altogether.

Seeing the commotion in his hometown, Ninh and several friends became curious and began investigating the plant. At first glance, they thought it resembled a wild plant known locally as “Ru Ri (Homonoia riparia Lour) that grows along streams. However, after searching for specimens and carefully comparing them, they realized that it was a different species.

Seeing an opportunity, Ninh took the risk of borrowing money from relatives to raise capital to buy and resell the plant. With no prior experience, he suffered repeated losses because the fresh plants he purchased lost weight during transport back, forcing him to make up the shortfall. However, there was a silver lining. Thanks to his honesty in business and meticulous record-keeping, he gradually earned the trust of traders in Nha Trang.

By November 2011, local authorities had taken strong action to curb illegal harvesting, and vehicles carrying forest workers gradually disappeared from the area. Realizing that natural stocks would inevitably be depleted, Ninh had already begun collecting fallen branches, stems and roots as early as September 2011 and bringing them back to his farm to experiment with cuttings and propagation.

The initial period was extremely challenging as he had no formal technical knowledge. To find the right propagation method, Ninh cut up cardboard boxes from instant noodles into numbered tags and attached them to different experimental plots. On each tag, he carefully recorded whether the cutting came from an old or young branch, the number of cuttings placed in each nursery bag, and how many days it took for the plants to develop roots and sprout. Through this painstaking manual approach, he gradually identified the plant’s growth patterns.

He also spent his own money buying small, stunted seedlings brought back by forest workers for VND 10,000-20,000/plant in an effort to preserve them.

In 2012, Ninh began providing seedlings to local farmers and purchasing their harvests under an offtake arrangement to recover his initial investment. About three to four years later, when the plants matured and began producing fruit, he harvested the seeds for propagation. Seed propagation proved highly effective, producing vigorous seedlings with exceptional drought tolerance. Ninh has now completely stopped using cuttings and supplies around 200,000 seed-grown seedlings to the market each year.

Once he had established a reliable seed supply, Ninh proactively partnered with local farmers to expand the area for growing raw materials. Currently, Paramignya trimera plantations in the Hon Heo area cover nearly 70ha owned by his family, along with more than 40 hectares cultivated under partnerships with farmers in wards including Hoa Thang and Dong Ninh Hoa.

To ensure a clean and high-quality supply of medicinal materials, Ninh guides farmers in adopting natural, ecological farming practices, including intercropping Paramignya trimera beneath mango and papaya canopies, maintaining grass cover to retain moisture, and strictly avoiding the use of plant protection products.

At the same time, the company has established strict offtake arrangements to ensure sustainable development. Under the arrangement, the company commits to purchasing the farmers’ entire output, provided that growers do not sell their products independently to outside buyers. If a farmer breaches the agreement by selling produce on the open market and the company discovers the violation, the company has full authority to determine the purchase price for that output, with the farmer having no right to negotiate or request a revised price.

A commitment to charity and OCOP goal

Beyond developing the business, Ninh’s company has maintained a program since 2014 to provide free Paramignya trimera products to poor and near-poor patients suffering from five serious types of cancer: liver, cervical, ovarian, colorectal and breast cancer.

Previously, patients seeking support had to send a photo of their poverty certificate. Now that administrative procedures have been integrated into the system, they only need to send a photo of their health insurance card showing the code for poor (HN) or near-poor (CN) households. After verifying the information through the system, Ninh packages and ships 2-4kg of raw medicinal material directly to their homes. Despite the significant impact the business has suffered in the aftermath of the pandemic, he remains determined to maintain the program.

He said that for serious illnesses, outcomes vary depending on each individual’s condition. However, in terms of reducing liver enzyme levels, Paramignya trimera has shown particularly noticeable effects. Thanks to its reputed detoxifying and liver-protective properties, the products are currently in high demand, particularly in Hanoi and northern provinces, where people have a strong interest in health care products and often choose this valuable medicinal plant as a gift.

To enhance the value chain, Tran Ba Ninh has invested in a processing facility and machinery to develop more standardized, value-added products. Instead of simply selling raw materials in small packages, the company has successfully developed 10 product lines using different parts of the plant, from leaves and stems to roots. These include Paramignya trimera powder, herbal tea for brewing, premium and Grade 1 tea bags, Paramignya trimera extract, nano products, and Paramignya trimera-infused liquor, all certified by the provincial Department of Industry and Trade and bearing complete labels and certification marks.

Among these, three products have received the province’s four-star OCOP certification.

Ninh’s main goal for 2026 is to focus on registering and upgrading the OCOP ratings for his convenient tea-bag products, thereby strengthening customer confidence when choosing them. At the same time, he is developing an additional Paramignya trimera cultivation model in the Ninh Thuy area as a long-term backup source of raw materials and seeking further investment to complete the model.

The journey to restore the endemic plant on Hon Heo Mountain has not only helped preserve the area’s indigenous resources but also created stable employment for nine workers, with monthly incomes ranging from VND 5.5 million to VND 12 million. The initiative is opening up promising prospects for the local medicinal plant industry.

Tran Ba Ninh is currently tending around 500 three-year-old Paramignya trimera plants in the Hon Chong area of Hoa Thang Ward. He plans to dedicate all medicinal material harvested from this area in the future to supporting and helping poor patients unfortunate enough to suffer from serious illnesses.

$ 1 = VND 26,320 - Source: Vietcombank.