China and India should enhance cooperation in traditional medicine, such as in the spheres of standardization, quality control, marketing and conservation of herbal resources.

Dr. P.Pushpangadan, superintendent of the India National Foliage Research Center (INFRC), made the remark while addressing the second Sino-Indian proseminar on traditional medicine, held in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province.

Both China and India are important countries in terms of development, production, supply and trading of traditional herbal medicine and foliage medicine, as well as relevant technologies, said Dr. P. Pushpangadan on Friday, "it is of great importance to increase exchange in this regard."

According to Dr. Pushpangadan, India is home to more than 17,500 kinds of fibrovasular foliage, and there are about 12,000 kinds of medicinal herbal resources in China.

The Indian specialist's urge for increased bilateral cooperation in the field of traditional medicine between India and China was echoed by Chinese Professor Lu Fu'er, who acted as the academic secretary to the proseminar.

Lu also underscored the vital importance of information sharing, technological transfer, exchanges of specialists, technical cooperation between medical enterprises and scientific research units, sustainable use of resources, and preservation of biodiversity.

It is estimated that the demand for herbal medicines on the world market will top 6 trillion US dollars by the year 2050.

The second proseminar was held at the jointly sponsorship of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Science and Industry Council of India.

The first such proseminar was held in India in 2003.