A museum showcasing traditional medicine recently opened in the Southern province of Binh Duong, 30 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City. The Fito Museum of Vietnamese Traditional Pharmacy is owned by Fito Pharma Co. Ltd. and is actually the second branch of the company. The first one is situated at District 10, Ho Chi Minh City.  

The museum exhibits over 5,000 precious documents and paintings of herbs and medicinal plants, as well as tools for grinding, weighing and making herbal medicine. Tours are also available wherein visitors are treated to the interesting history of oriental medicine 100 years ago, as well as its evolution to contemporary manufacturing.

 For more than 2,000 years, hundreds of medical treatment, disease prevention and health care in general have been attributed to herbs as uncovered by Vietnamese ethnobotanists and traditional medical practitioners. There are 1,300 known medicinal plant species in the country according the Health Ministry. They are considered so valuable not only in Vietnam but all over the world that they are being manufactured today by the World Health Organization.

Herbal medicine shops and clinics can be found across the country. Visitors usually buy them either for legitimate medical purposes or as souvenirs since they have also become a tourist attraction especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.   

Vietnam’s hot and humid climate creates an ideal environment for the natural growth of herbs.