Ngoc Ha looks healthy and youthful at 50.

The woman with her hair dyed blonde walks briskly between six floors of the Fito Museum, home to hundreds of processed medicinal herbs and 3,000 artifacts reflecting the 2,000-year-old history of Vietnamese traditional medicine.

Ha, who is Vietnamese American, stops sometimes to listen to the museum guide’s presentation on the origins and the use of hundreds of knives, pestles and grinders for medicine preparation, some of which date back to the Stone Age.

The artifacts, displayed in glass cases, have different shapes and are made of various materials, including bronze, clay, stone, and timber, made according to the use and the purpose of each medicine, said Bui Thi Hao, the guide.

Hao is curious to know if Ha has a business in medicines since she was paying much more attention compared with other Vietnamese visitors.

Ha just smiles at first, but as an afterthought,  says the displays in the museum are both new and familiar to her, adding her health has solely depended on local traditional medicine for years though she’s been in the US for a long time.

Like most visitors, especially foreigners, Ha is impressed by the harmonious architecture and decoration of the whole building, from the tiles engraved with the word tho (longevity) to the bonsais, medical herbs and big shade trees planted even on the 4th floor.

All 18 exhibition rooms together with an elevator are delicately framed and encrusted with black wood and mother-of-pearl, some of which are originally from ancient houses collected and built by the museum’s owner, herbalist Le Khac Tam over 10 years.

Tam, who runs the Fito Pharma Company that specializes in manufacturing traditional herbal medicines with modern technology, spent another three years to ask the best artisans he could find to incorporate parts of the ancient houses into the museum.

He also had them carve a big tree and the names of 100 Vietnamese physicians – who have made considerable contributions to the development of Vietnamese traditional medicine from the 12th century to the early twenty century – on a large wooden tablet.

The museum also reserves a special room to honor 15 famous physicians of Vietnam from the 12th to the 18th centuries, including Tue Tinh (1330-?), Chu Van An (1292-1370), and Nguyen Dai Nang.

The warm smell of the various types of wood and hundreds of dried herbs kept in the second floor of the museum on Hoang Du Khuong in HCMC’s Dist. 10 refreshes Ha and other visitors.

“Whenever I return to Vietnam, I always buy traditional medicines to use in America since I’m not used to Western drugs,” Ha said as she lifted a big jar, used to steep medicine in alcohol, to investigate its inside.

 “We don’t deny that Western medicine is the first resort in cases of acute illness or bacterial or viral infections, yet it only treats the symptoms and has many side effects. Whereas the herbal medicines almost have no side effects, yet are more effective in the long run because they deal with the true cause of illness.”

Eating grass

Chinese – Filipino visitor Miriam Chua remarked humorously that the Vietnamese people have a tradition of eating “grass,” alluding to the leaves, vegetables and fruits served fresh during meals.

Medicinal herbs are served with vegetables not only for their taste but also for their restorative, purging and correcting action on the body, said Chua, who bought a lot of herbal seeds from Vietnam during her trip to the country in 2008 to plant in her garden in Ozamis City.

According to Tam, the owner of Fito (from Phyto in Greek, which means plant), Vietnamese have used hundreds of plant species for medicinal purposes in daily life for a long time, and many related practices have lasted until today. He cited the chewing of betel, the dyeing of teeth (to prevent decay) and the use of ginger to fight malaria as examples.

“And it is common that Vietnamese would take less medication than they were prescribed, drink herbs or eat certain kinds of cooking to ‘balance’ a drug’s side effects,” said Tam.

The long history of local traditional medicine is based on the cornucopia of medicinal plant species provided by the country’s hot and humid tropical climate, he said.

According to the Ministry of Health, 1,800 species of medical trees of 238 kinds of vegetation have been found in Vietnam.

Fito Museum

Add: 41 Hoang Du Khuong Street, Ward 12, District 10, HCMC

Fee entrance: VND32,000 (US$1.5)/pax

After the tour, visitors can even have a consultation with experienced Oriental medicine doctors and are served lingzhi tea for free.