Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County

Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County

Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County is a protected geographical indication product.

Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County is an agricultural geographical indication product.

　　Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County is a specialty of She County, Handan City, Hebei Province. Testing by the Hebei Provincial Institute for Food and Drug Control found that Shanhu from She County contains 0.69% total saikosaponins a and d, which is 2.3 times the pharmacopoeia standard (0.30%), and an extract content of 18.3%, 1.67 times the pharmacopoeia standard (11.0%). Shanhu from She County is a nationally protected geographical indication agricultural product.

　　She County is a mountainous region with high peaks, dense forests, crisscrossing river valleys, and lush vegetation. It lies within the northern temperate sub-humid continental monsoon climate zone. Its unique geographical location and favorable climate have endowed the area with abundant wild animal and plant medicinal resources. According to the She County Annals from the 36th year of the Ming Jiajing era, eight types of traditional Chinese medicinal materials—including Bupleurum, Schizonepeta, and Saposhnikovia—were already recognized as local specialties at that time. During the tumultuous years of the Anti-Japanese War, medical workers of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, under the leadership of Health Minister Qian Xinzong, successfully developed the world’s first modern traditional Chinese medicine preparation—Bupleurum Injection—in She County in 1942, saving countless soldiers and civilians. To this day, the Bupleurum from this region remains the standard medicinal material for formulating the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China.

　　Leveraging the resource advantage of wild medicinal herbs, She County has guided farmers to cultivate medicinal plants such as Bupleurum artificially. Departments such as the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau and the Poverty Alleviation Office have planned industrial layouts, guided land transfers, and adopted a “company + cooperative + farmer” development and management model. This includes unified planting, unified management, unified seed procurement, unified sales, unified accounting, and unified profit distribution, thereby promoting the cultivation of medicinal herbs and achieving intercropping of medicinal and forest plants, as well as medicinal and grain crops. Currently, the county has 80,000 mu of medicinal herb cultivation area, with over 10 planting zones exceeding 1,000 mu. Among them, the She County Delukang Bupleurum Demonstration Garden and the Taihang Pharmaceutical Salvia and Belamcanda Demonstration Garden—both provincial-level demonstration gardens—serve as models among the province’s 100 provincial-level demonstration gardens. The main cultivated varieties include Bupleurum, Salvia, and Belamcanda, with an average income increase of over 1,600 yuan for medicinal herb farmers.

　　In 2014, the “Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County” application submitted by the She County Agricultural Technology Extension Center passed the review of the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and expert evaluation, leading to its implementation as a nationally protected geographical indication agricultural product.

　　Geographical Scope

　　She County is located in the southwestern part of Hebei Province, bordering Wu’an and Ci County to the east, Zuoquan, Licheng, and Pingshun counties of Shanxi Province to the west, and Lin County and Anyang County of Henan Province to the south. It sits at the junction of Hebei, Henan, and Shanxi provinces, covering a total area of 1,509 square kilometers. Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County is mainly distributed within the county. It is primarily found in mid-mountain and low-mountain areas at elevations of 500–1,500 meters, spanning 308 villages across 17 townships including Piancheng Town, Piandian Township, Lutou Township, Liaocheng Township, Suobao Town, Henan店 Town, Guxin Town, Xida Town, Hegang Township, Guanfang Township, Gengle Town, Jingdian Town, Xixu Town, Longhu Township, Mujing Township, Shecheng Town, and Shentou Township. The geographical coordinates are between 113°26′55″ to 114°00′16″ east longitude and 36°16′18″ to 36°54′07″ north latitude. The protected area for Shanhu (Bupleurum) from She County spans 300,000 mu, with a cultivation area of 50,000 mu and an annual output of around 4,000 tons.