A recently announced national research center for medicinal species genomics in Tonghua, Jilin province is expected to help improve technological innovation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), industry insiders said.

Founded by the Beijing Institute of Genomics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Jilin Zixin Pharmaceutical Industrial Co Ltd, the center will focus on research into plant and animal species used in TCM that live in the Changbai Mountain range that runs through Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in Northeast China.

The mountains have about 1,000 plant and animal species as well as minerals that can be used as TCM ingredients, about one-third of the nation's total.