Hide and Seek Extract
Half an hour ago, Tang Zhipei skillfully demonstrated to Chen Zhenhua that he obtained a neutral extract from the refrigerated Herba Unknownii juice at 2°C by ether extraction. When he injected the extract into experimental animals infected with tuberculosis bacteria, the number of bacteria was greatly reduced.
Chen Zhenhua couldn't believe her eyes. Under the guidance of Tang Zhipei, she repeated the experiment and the results were exactly the same.
"It's true, it's true." She burst into tears excitedly.
Zhou Chuzhuo, who brought Chen Zhenhua here, looked at Zhenhua and Tang Zhipei who were crying loudly and didn't know what to do for a moment. He wanted to comfort them but didn't know where to start.
After they both calmed down a little, Zhou Chuzhuo finally understood what was going on.
It turned out that after countless attempts and adjustments, Tang Zhipei finally found a breakthrough and successfully extracted the most precious ingredient from the nameless grass. The reason why it is precious is that this ingredient has a significant positive effect on tuberculosis patients, greatly reducing tuberculosis bacteria.
The significance of discovering this neutral extract is no less than finding a specific drug to treat cancer.
The difficulty in killing tuberculosis bacteria is a global medical problem. Although BCG vaccination has a certain preventive effect on severe tuberculosis in children, its preventive effect on adult pulmonary tuberculosis is unstable and cannot completely prevent tuberculosis infection and disease.
Western medicine treatment for tuberculosis takes a long time, is expensive, has strong drug resistance, has poor treatment effects, and is difficult to completely kill the bacteria.
As early as the early 1970s, Chen Zhenhua’s teacher, Academician Xiao Mei, was appointed as the leader of the Chinese Medicine Anti-Tuberculosis Research Group of the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, responsible for the national "813" anti-tuberculosis drug research mission.
However, the mission was forced to be interrupted due to the ten-year catastrophe and the research was not resumed until the beginning of 1980. Chen Zhenhua had also been in the teacher's research group before. They read a large number of traditional Chinese medicine books and consulted prescriptions from the public.
Over the years, more than 100 water extracts and 200 alcohol extracts of traditional Chinese medicines were screened, but they could only relieve symptoms but could not kill the bacteria at all. Ultimately, all efforts were in vain and the research came to a standstill.
Tang Zhipei's discovery was undoubtedly a timely help, solving the urgent need for research. With such explosive good news, the two could not wait until dawn and knocked on Teacher Xiao Mei's door at four in the morning.
Teacher Xiao's reaction was exactly the same as Chen Zhenhua's, from shock and questioning to rushing to the laboratory immediately.
After watching the entire experiment process and results, Teacher Xiao Mei asked Tang Zhipei with tears in her eyes, "Xiaopei, how many times have you done this experiment?"
“322 extractions with ethanol, 284 with methanol, 135 with petroleum ether, and 191 with ether.”
Tang Zhipei's experimental workload is equivalent to the annual workload of a scientific research team of more than ten people, but he is just one person.
"Child, how did you do it?" Teacher Xiao Mei couldn't help but shed tears of excitement.
"Actually, this is not that difficult. The most difficult part is the refrigeration temperature. One degree more or one degree less will not work. It can only be extracted at 2°C. This substance has been playing hide-and-seek with me, appearing for a while and disappearing for a while. It's driving me crazy."
Half a year ago, Zhou Huaiyue came to see Tang Zhipei. To put it bluntly, his mental state was that of a psychopath. He was unkempt, talking to himself, immersed in his own world, and completely blocking out all sounds around him.
That period seemed like the darkness before dawn. Tang Zhipei failed in experiment again and again. Many times he wanted to smash the experimental equipment, but looking at the spiritual grass, he felt that they had life, as if the emerald green juice was a set of codes. As long as he could decipher it, he could also see the secrets of heaven like Master Ciyun.
When "The Shepherd" was released, everyone around him went to see the movie, but Tang Zhipei was still in the laboratory. The substance finally stopped playing hide-and-seek with him, and he found the substance in the 191st ether extract sample at 2°C.
But at that time, he didn't know which bacteria this substance was effective against. Going back to the source, Master Ciyun used Wumingcao as a good medicine to protect and nourish the stomach, so it must be effective against bacteria that cause stomach problems.
In subsequent experiments, Tang Zhipei mainly conducted research on gastric bacteria, and all the data pointed to confirming his previous speculation.
However, Tang Zhipei, who has first-class sensitivity, always feels that it is not enough, because Wumingcao is also used by Ciyun and Jingxuan as a natural anti-inflammatory drug. This shows that nourishing the stomach is only one of its effects.
What else?
Tang Zhipei flipped through the materials he had compiled in Nanshan Village, which contained a record of the efficacy and medicinal uses by Zhou Huaiyue. Four words in it: "pulmonary abscess discharge" gave him an idea.
Although pulmonary emphysema and pulmonary tuberculosis are two different diseases in traditional Chinese medicine theory, they have similar symptoms such as coughing, hemoptysis, fever, etc. A bold idea exploded in Tang Zhipei's mind: he applied the extract to the bodies of experimental animals infected with tuberculosis bacteria, and the lung lesions shrank and the number of bacteria was greatly reduced.
This result shocked Tang Zhipei. When the New Year's bell rang, he started the second round of experiments. Science does not believe in accidental luck.
In round after round, over and over again, that certain belief became stronger and stronger.
......
To ensure that the Herba Unknownii extract is effective against multiple types of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the entire anti-tuberculosis research team worked in shifts around the clock from the third to the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, and finally compiled a detailed research report of more than 100 pages on the eve of the Lantern Festival.
If this report is made public, it will surely attract the attention of medical scientists studying tuberculosis around the world. It cannot tolerate any flaws and must be able to withstand all scrutiny.
So, what kind of grass is it extracted from?
The extract is certain, its effectiveness is certain, but the herb itself is not certain.
As the scale of the experiment expanded, the research team had to find out the name of the grass and obtain a large amount of nameless grass juice from Yunnan, so that they could use large vats to extract enough extracts for pre-clinical toxicity experiments and prepare for the next step of human experiments.
Zhou Huaiyue was recruited into the research team, responsible for working with a group of Chinese medicine practitioners to find out the true name of the nameless grass.
On that day, a paramilitary vehicle drove into Sanhua Pharmaceutical and several people got out of the vehicle, one of whom was Tang Zhipei.
The factory workers didn't know their purpose and thought they were here to arrest the factory manager. A large group of people came out and stood in front of them. A few smart ones ran to inform Shen Roujiao and told her to run quickly, which made her confused.
To be honest, she had just received a notice from her superiors, asking Sanhua Pharmaceutical to actively cooperate with the research, preserve the refrigerated Wumingcao juice, and hand it over to the scientific researchers.
During the Chinese New Year, I learned from my mother-in-law that Tang Zhipei had made a major breakthrough in his research. Afterwards, Zhou Huaiyue and Chen Zhenhua, mother and son, were recruited into the research team, and Shen Roujiao and Qin Zilin returned to Yunnan.
After pushing through the crowd, Shen Roujiao saw Tang Zhipei and realized it was a misunderstanding. After comforting the employee, she went to the factory director's office. After Tang Zhipei explained the whole story in such detail, Shen Roujiao's mind exploded.
In her previous life, she died of tuberculosis, and that kind of pain was engraved in her memory; in this life, if she could really find a specific medicine to cure tuberculosis from the nameless grass, then how great would the significance of her rebirth be.
At the same time, the businessman's sharp intuition told her that this was also an opportunity for Benyuan County and even the entire Xiaonanchuan City.
Lingxi was so happy to see Tang Zhipei, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, that she couldn't stop smiling. She took him to the "secret base", the cultivation room and extraction room of the nameless grass. The two people who were doing oral liquid research surrounded Tang Zhipei and asked him questions.
Shen Roujiao called Gu Jingnian, now the mayor of Gu, and expressed the core idea that the nameless grass is a great treasure. If the cultivation of the nameless grass is carried out on a large scale in Benyuan County, it will not only have important medical significance, but also have considerable economic benefits.
Gu Jingnian, who has all-knowing connections, easily found out relevant information. If the extract of the nameless grass has significant effects in clinical human experiments, the National Medical Pharmaceutical Company will build a large-scale nameless grass cultivation room in the capital to provide extracts for tuberculosis-specific drugs.
With such a huge demand, it is obviously not enough to rely on Sinopharm alone, so Gu Jingnian decided to get a piece of the pie.
The development of oral liquid broke through the last obstacle because of Tang Zhipei's discovery of 2℃. They refrigerated the boiled medicine juice at 2℃ and mixed it with the juice of the nameless grass at the same temperature, and the bitterness miraculously disappeared.
What’s even more amazing is that even after returning to room temperature from 2°C, it still has no bitterness.
According to Tang Zhipei's theory, the substance is active at 2°C and reacts with other medicinal ingredients, and the bitterness disappears naturally. The reason for the previous failure was that at other temperatures, the substance could not react with other ingredients and would inevitably taste bitter.
It was like solving a world problem. Several researchers in R&D burst into tears and wanted to kneel down to Tang Zhipei. They all said that hard work will eventually pay off, but this was simply too difficult.
The bitter taste that has troubled everyone for more than two years, causing the R&D personnel to lose their appetite, sleep, and almost lose their hair, no one would have thought that it would be related to the refrigeration temperature.
Shen Roujiao finally got her wish for the oral liquid to be on the market, and she finally had the face to go back and pay homage to Master Ciyun. She did not disappoint the old man's expectations.
After planning everything, Shen Roujiao thought of someone. The pharmaceutical factory's phone could not make international long-distance calls, so Gu Jingnian's secretary took her to the foreign affairs department to make a call.
The person opposite him was none other than Huo Tingchuan, a big boss in the medical equipment business in Hong Kong.
That's right, Shen Roujiao wanted to import a full set of infusion equipment for oral liquid production, and she started with two production lines. She knew clearly that with just the Chinese medicine Wumingcao, Sanhua oral liquid would be popular all over the country and even go abroad.
Because Huo Tingchuan, who had received the news from China Pharmaceutical Company long ago, wanted to be the overseas agent of Sanhua Oral Liquid. In other words, Huo Tingchuan could handle the overseas promotion and sales.
We are all businessmen. We know everything that has a market and can make money, and our minds are as clear as mirrors.
When Sanhua Pharmaceutical Factory reached a cooperation with a third-party municipal hospital to conduct experiments on the efficacy and toxicity of Sanhua Oral Liquid, Shen Tiancheng contacted the manufacturer to add two more cultivation rooms for Nameless Grass.
Afterwards, the R&D personnel actively organized the relevant information needed for the approval of the oral liquid, such as the R&D process, formula, production process, various test data, as well as ingredients, production process, etc. All the information was ready, but Shen Roujiao did not go to Beijing for approval.
She is waiting.
Wait, Zhou Huaiyue and his team found the name of the nameless grass.
That is not only the biggest selling point of Sanhua Oral Liquid, but also an opportunity to promote the oral liquid. Once the specific tuberculosis drug is on the market, Sanhua Oral Liquid will be a big seller.