In China, firms such as Guilin Pharmaceuticals are trying to cultivate the plant both on their own plantations and through contracts with local farmers rather than relying on wild leaves.

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Never mind that the heroine is fighting invaders among misty hills like those around Guilin in southern China, rather than the loess plains up north where the Huns were wreaking terror.

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With no intention of leaving the country, Esquel has actually made substantial additional investments in China by acquiring plants in Xinjiang and Guilin on top of expansion in Vietnam.

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The problem, says Yan Xiaohua, the president of Guilin Pharmaceuticals, one of China's leading producers of artemisinin and its derivatives, is not that there are too few plants, but that the price of leaves has shot through the roof.

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