Pudong New Area has launched a campaign to collect recipes for traditional Chinese medicine from doctors in the area, officials with the Pudong New Area Social Development Bureau said yesterday.

Recipes for Chinese medicine are often highly particular to each doctor.

The collected recipes will be compiled in a book by the end of 2010 as a measure to preserve traditional medical heritage.

After experts examine the recipes, the most effective will be promoted at hospitals in the area and may even be put into production after clinical tests.

A similar process took place in Chuansha area in 1958, when about 300 recipes were collected.

"We want traditional medication to be frequently used by doctors in hospitals," said Wei Jianglei, a chief physician at Shuguang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital who is in charge of the campaign.

Some recipes and ingredients are not handed down from generation to generation and are lost, said Shi Hongrui, director of Jinyang Community Health Service Center.

He and seven other doctors who have practiced TCM for decades called on government officials to take action to protect China's traditional medical heritage during the Pudong government meetings at the beginning of this year.

The government called on doctors in Pudong hospitals, retired doctors and private clinics to donate recipes.

However, some doctors were reluctant to give away their family's recipes due to intellectual property concerns.

The bureau is considering signing confidentiality agreements with and offering rewards to doctors whose recipes go into production.

(Shanghai Daily March 12, 2009)