VietNamNet Bridge – Placenta is rumored as a miraculous medicine or extremely nutritious food, so many people try to buy it.
“My husband is working very hard. He looks very skinny. This afternoon I will buy placenta to fry with egg for him,” an accountant named Ngoc in District 3 HCM City, told VietNamNet’s reporter.

Several days later, a relative who is living in the US called the reporter, asking him to buy placenta for her. She said it is very easy to buy placenta, which is also very cheap, in Vietnam.

The reporter was curious and began investigating the placenta market in HCM City. He went to Hai Thuong Lan Ong, the street of oriental medicines in District 5, which is said to be the market for placenta.

Calling at an oriental medicine shop named H.L, the reporter asked for placenta. The shop owner, a middle-aged man, took a plastic bag from a glass cabinet, which has Chinese label and asked the reporter: “VND120,000 ($6) a pack, how many packs do you want?”

The reporter said that she wanted to buy one pack for her husband’s trial use. If it is effective, she would return to purchase ten packs as gifts for her relatives.

“Sending abroad?” the shop owner asked.

The reporter asked him to take note the medical properties and how to use instruction. The shop owner told the reporter to wait for a while to consult from books. He opened two old books to find information about placenta then told his son to call someone to ask somebody about placenta. Finally, he copied instruction from the old book and told the reporter to follow that instruction.

“This thing is very valuable. If you want to buy Vietnam’s product, you have to place an order in advance. Vietnam’s placenta is fresh so it is much more expensive. If you want to get the product immediately, we only have dried placenta from China,” the man said.

When the reporter said goodbye, the shop owner whispered: “The state does not allow selling this product. Do you know why? Because it is so valuable and nourishing, so they want to hold a monopoly on trading rights.”

VietNamNet talked with Dr. Tran Ngoc Hai from the HCM City-based Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital about the use of placenta.

Hai said that placenta is an organ that connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall to allow nutrient uptake, waste elimination, and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply. 70 percent of placenta is water.

“Placenta is considered as an Oriental medicine. People say that it is very nourishing and very good but there is no scientific research work about that,” Dr. Hai said.
According to the doctor, a tonic medicine called Philatop, which is produced from placenta, was very popular in Vietnam in the past. However, this medicine has vanished for around ten years since scientists discovered that placenta can be infected with HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis, etc. from pregnant women. The uses of products that are processed from placenta have been strictly controlled.

Dr. Hai said that it is illegal to trade placenta in the market. Infected placenta is not only harmful for users but it can transmit diseases to those who touch it.

As many people can purchase fresh placenta, Dr. Hai explained: “There are many hospitals, clinics and consulting rooms in Vietnam. Perhaps placenta comes from small clinics or health stations.”

He confirmed that at big hospitals like Tu Du, placenta is treated in a closed and strict process, as medical waste.

Thanh Huyen