Malaysian Herbs Show Huge Potential For Commercialization
KUALA LUMPUR April 14 (Bernama) – Malaysia’s rainforests are endowed with a multitude of herbs that are believed to have medicinal and nutritional values.
Popular herbs such as rosary pea, gotu kola (better known as pegaga), mint or pudina and eurycoma longifolia (commonly known as tongkat ali) possess great potential to expand their reach in the field of modern medicine.
The government, in fact, had identified herbs as a new source of economic growth for Malaysia more than a decade ago. In 2011, the herbal industry was selected as one of the first entry point projects (EPP 1) under the agriculture new key economic areas (NKEA) in the economic transformation programme which commenced in early 2011.
Senior lecturer at the Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Associate Prof Dr Nurshamimi Nor Rashid said under EPP 1, 10 types of herbs were identified as having great potential to be developed for use, particularly in the field of medicine (including alternative medicine) and as food products.
The 10 herbs are tongkat ali, pegaga, roselle, ginger, kacip fatimah (Labisa pumila), misai kucing (Orthosiphon stamineus), dukung anak (Phyllanthus), hempedu bumi (Andrographis paniculata), mas cotek (Ficus deltoidea) and mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia, commonly known as noni).
– BERNAMA
