PROSPECTS & REALITIES OF PLANT DRUG DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA Presented by: Prof. A. N. Rao Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Tropical Medicinal Plants Malaysia 1
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MALAYSIA Physical Features & Flora West Peninsular Malaya, 131,700 km² Part of mainland of Asia, continuation of Thailand. Singapore at Southern tip. Number of flowering plant species - 13,056 13,056 world. Next to Indonesia with 20,000 ecies y high East Sarawak and Sabah Bigger land area. Borneo island - 740,000 km² (Third largest island in the world) Sabah 73600 km², Sarawak 124450 km² Almost same or even more. No flora of the two states worked out yet Brunei 5765sqkm. Less than 1% of the whole island Checklist published in 1996. 3
Scientific Culture in Malaysia 1. Scientific culture is very young, about 50 years old, Independence from the colonial rule in 1957. 2. Records on Traditional medicines are varied and fragmentary, very few in Malay language. 3. Malaysia is unique - Malay, Chinese and Indians are living together for the last 5 centuries. 4. The traditional medicinal systems are practiced by the rural and local people. It is common to see that all the three types of medicinal systems are used by the people. 5. The colonial rulers started recording the use of local plants used by the natives; dictionary of economic products of Malaya published in 1935 by I H Burkill, following Watt s dictionary of India. 6. About 1,200 plant species were discussed as medicinal plants, gathering the details available till then, both about local and introduced plant species. 4
Ethnobotanical Details 1. The information obtained and recorded was mostly obtained from the local people. 2. Cross regional usages are frequently mentioned including details from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and other S.E. Asian countries. 3. Chemotaxonomic approach and ethnopharmacological methods were followed to screen the chemical composition of certain plant species in Mount Kinabalu - the highest mountain between Himalayas and Australian mountains. 4. Some success resulted in identifying the alkaloid contents of certain species in a few families. 5. There are 5500 types of alkaloids. Certain alkaloids are found only in members of one family. Ex. Bombacaeae. - Many alkaloids are present in members of Solanaceae, Rubiaceae, Rananculaceae, etc. 6. What you search for and where is important. Mount Kinabalu experience and results were very elementary. 5
Phytochemical Research Of the 250,000 higher plant species, existing worldwide, 60% of them are present in the tropics. Only a small percentage of these are investigated to determine the bioactive compounds in them. About 95 tropical plant species were phytochemically analyzed to produce 121 useful plant drugs. 74 plant species were listed as major medicinal plants walk on phytochemical research in Malaya was started in early 1960s. Many papers were published. The research on natural products is continuing on the same lines in several universities in the country and FRIM. Most of the results are of academic value; in depth studies should be conducted on a few potential species to develop drugs for global market. If successful, economic benefits would be very great running to several billion US dollars. 6
Collaboration with other Institutions In 1960-70, drug plant materials were sent to different laboratories in USA regularly for phytochemical analysis. Work was on contract basis for ex. Smith Kline and French Co. USA. Charges for collaboration and despatch was paid by the receiving institutions. Remuneration received was handsome. Of late plant materials were collected by a few well known institutions in USA, National Cancer Institute, School of Pharmacy, Univ. of Chicago. Successful story of Calophyllum lanigerum - a tree species from Sarawak Anti HIV compound was isolated - Calanolide A. The research credit and patent was acquired by scientists in USA, a disappointing experience for Malaysia 7
Improvements Needed Many improvements needed to overcome the existing disadvantages. Lack of funds. Lack of facilities, coordination in research. Lack of infrastructure for plant analysis and bioassay. Lack of manpower - Taxonomy, cytology, plant chemistry, research workers to carry out investigations Lack of expertise in the field to develop products for global market. Greater collaboration with experts in the other countries needed. 8