Chinese scientists said great progress has been made in quality control technologies and standardization of traditional Tibetan medicine after 20 years of research.

A total of 264 criteria for Tibetan medicine processing have been completed since the "key technologies and applications in Tibetan medicine quality control" program was launched in 1993, said Wei Lixin, one of the project's researchers.

Researchers referred to medical theories in ancient books and techniques from the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan and from Tibet Autonomous Region for their research, according to Wei, researcher of the Tibetan medicine research center of the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The overall technical system for quality control has been built to upgrade the Tibetan medicine industry, said Wei on Friday at a project appraisal seminar in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province.

The Xining-based institute is the research project's major undertaker.

"Over the past three years, the results of the research have been applied in eight Tibetan medicine companies, helping them realize sales revenue of 1.1 billion yuan (177 million U.S. dollars)," said Wei.

The study has solved some bottle-neck problems hindering the development of Tibetan medicine, and some achievements have reached advanced international levels, according to domestic experts from universities, hospitals and medicine quality watchdogs at the seminar.

Tibetan medicine, also known as Sowa Rigpa in the Tibetan language, is at least 2,300 years old. It has absorbed the influences of traditional Chinese, Indian and Arab medicine and is in practice in Tibet and the Himalayan region.

Similar to traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine uses herbs, minerals and sometimes insects and animals for treatment. (Xinhua)