CM: Herbs sector can be next major earner

Daily Express: Kota Kinabalu: The local herb industry and its entire value chain may become another income earner for Sabah apart from other resources such as oil palm.
Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said herbs, considered as alternative crops or "Crops for the Future", have commercial potential but have not been fully exploited and cultivated on a large scale.
He said this when officiating the National Herbal Medicines Conference 2006, Tuesday. His speech was read by his Deputy, Datuk Yahya Hussin.
Musa said the industry will spawn numerous opportunities for the entire value chain be it growers, research and development (R&D), manufacturers, marketers, distributors, retailers and end-users.
"According to a report by the World Health Organisation, 80 per cent of the world's population depends on herbal medicine.
"It has been said that tropical forests contribute 25 per cent of the world's medicinal products and nearly half of the prescription drugs are plant-derived," he said.
Being known as the fourth most bio-diverse nation in Asia, Malaysia has an estimated 15,000 known plant species, 4,000 of which with medicinal values while the rest remains largely unexploited.
It is estimated that in Sabah, there are 1,250 species of indigenous plants with commercial value.
In view of its rich bio-diversity, Sabah offers many business opportunities to convert natural resources into value-added products through processing and R&D activities.
"Local herbs can be produced into a wide range of products mainly health food and beverages, herbal medicine, health enhancing products, dietary supplements, flavours and fragrance, cosmetics and toiletries.
"Hence, the local herbal industry holds great potentials and I urge entrepreneurs to actively pursue R&D as well as manufacturing local herbs," Musa said.
Towards this end, as a major step in the development of the Speciality Natural Product (SNP) industry in particular, the State Government, has established the Sabah Industrial Precinct (Saip) to encourage the development of agro-based industries, particularly those based on natural resources and non-traditional crops such as herbs.
Musa said to have a viable SNP industrial cluster in Sabah, efforts in R&D by academic and research institutions, the Government as well as the private sector must play their respective roles.
"Ultimately, the task of translating these policy guidelines and R&D findings into globally competitive products lies in the hands of our corporate players," he stressed.
With the launch of the National Biotechnology Policy last year, Sabah could tap all of the advancement in agriculture and heatlhcare biotechnology as she is blessed with a large gene-pool of biodiversity, which could potentially lead to remedies of some incurable diseases such as cancer.
"Herbal remedy could provide some alternative if not protection against deadly diseases."
Meanwhile, the conference's organising chairman, Datuk Nancy Ho, said plants-made pharmaceuticals have enormous potentials to bring new, improved and accessible treatment options to many patients suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and heart disease.
Recent reports have shown that plants thought to help treat or cure cancer, Aids and malaria have been found in the rainforests of Borneo.
Hence, it is timely to bring together scientists, research workers and practitioners to share their knowledge, she said.
Also present during the function were Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad and other dignitaries.