The Dalat Centre for Planting and Processing Herbal Trees has successfully extracted an active element called 10-DAB from red pine trees in Lam Dong to process taxol for cancer treatment.

Red pine trees planted in Cam Ly, Lam Dong province.

The centre’s director, Vuong Tri Hung, revealed that red pine trees had been moved from Lam Dong’s forest to Phu Yen province ten years ago as an experiment, but they died. The centre then rented 3000 square meters of land in Lam Dong province to bring these trees from 1300-1500 meters above sea level to only 940 meters, but again their experiment failed.

Experts then tried to grow this rare tree in Dalat, which has a similar height with where red pines grow naturally. They collected nearly 30 species of red pine and chose nine species to verify their DNA for multiple seedlings.

The centre currently has over 200,000 trees for their research, using them to extract a valuable active element for cancer treatment. The scientists aim to extract 0.5kg of 10-DAB active element and 10g taxol from the leaves and young branches of the red pines by 2010.

The trees are praised for containing the highest content of 10-DAB in the world. However, this species of tree is facing extinction because there are only 100 natural trees left in Lam Dong forest. Experts have been trying to plant them in artificial conditions, but this tree species requires a specific climate and edaphologic conditions so only a handful of countries, one of which is Vietnam, can sustain this tree.

VietNamNet/Tien Phong