With a huge annual output accounting for one third of China's total volume of traditional medicine, Sichuan Province has become the country's largest base of the medicine in the burgeoning modern-oriented industry, the provincial technological department said yesterday.

The province, boasting some 5,000 species of herbs and a potential output capacity of 1 million tons of various medicines, registers an annual output of 100,000 tons of traditional Chinese medicines, the department said on the sideline of the ongoing Second International Science and Technology Conference on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Sichuan, located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in southwest China, has various climates, biological systems, and abundant water resources that jointly contribute to the diversification of herbs.

Sichuan has been famous for the effectiveness of its wild herbs but large-scale plantation has been burgeoning in recent years. There are over 30 traditional Chinese medicine production bases across the province that covers over 40,000 hectares.

The Hehuachi market, based in the provincial capital of Chengdu, registers an annual trade turnover of 1.2 billion yuan (around US$148 million) on more than 200,000 tons of traditional medicine.

The three-day conference, which opened Sunday in Chengdu, will display the latest science and technology in traditional Chinese medicine, the industrial prospects and international cooperation.

Participants in the conference will focus on such topics as high technology in modern traditional Chinese medicine, sustainable growth and the utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources, and clinical research of the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2005)