Profile

A backbone of Zhang Kangjian's team, participating in Qinzhong variety breeding and research on Eucommia leaf and bark components.

Story

Wang Lan is a faculty member of Northwest A&F University (formerly Northwest Forestry College) and one of the core members when Zhang Kangjian founded the Eucommia research team in 1982. Based in Lueyang County, Shaanxi, and guided by active-component content, she and the team selected over 50 elite germplasm resources from major producing regions including Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and Shaanxi, braving wind and rain to sample in remote mountains and carrying out systematic propagation and selection - a firsthand participant in the breeding of improved varieties such as 'Qinzhong 1'.

The study 'A Comparative Study of the Active-component Contents of Eucommia Leaves and Bark' (1996), in which she participated, provided data supporting the scientific pathway of substituting Eucommia leaves for bark in medicine, offering early evidence for the later inclusion of Eucommia leaves in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and for leaf-plantation cultivation models. After 20 years of effort, the team-bred 'Qinzhong 1' passed provincial certification in 2003, filling the domestic gap in high-medicine and high-rubber Eucommia varieties; as one of the major completers, she won the 2017 Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Award (First Prize).

Milestones

• In the 1980s-1990s, went deep into the mountains of Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and Shaanxi with the team to collect Eucommia germplasm resources
• In 1996, published the comparative study of Eucommia leaf and bark components in the Journal of Northwest Forestry College
• Has long conducted Eucommia improved-variety propagation and cultivation trials based in Lueyang County, Shaanxi

Key Contributions

• As a backbone of Zhang Kangjian's Eucommia team, participated in selecting over 50 elite Eucommia germplasms from major producing regions nationwide and their systematic propagation and selection
• Participated in breeding the 'Qinzhong 1-4' improved Eucommia varieties; 'Breeding of new Eucommia varieties and in-depth development and utilization of secondary metabolites' won the 2017 Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Award (First Prize)
• Co-authored with Zhang Kangjian and others 'A comparative study of the active-component contents of Eucommia leaves and bark', providing a basis for using leaves in place of bark
• The Eucommia seed oil product she helped develop obtained national new food raw material certification