| Cosmetics From Guava, Kadok, Mangosteen |
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KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (Bernama ) -- Cosmetics and health food made from guava, kadok (piper sarmentosum) and mangosteen are among the latest herbal products to be launched during the four-day Herbal Asia 2005 Exhibition at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre here begining Thursday.
The products were developed based on research and development by the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (Frim).
The research had found that standardised extracts from local plants such as psidium guava (guava), piper sarmentosum (kadok) and garcinia mangosteena (mangosteen) contain antioxidant and skin whitening agent.
Frim Director-General Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Mohd Ali said these extracts were incorporated into products such as hand and body scrub, facial cleansing set and herbal drinks.
"Other products that will be displayed and promoted during the exhibition include herbal teas, citrus essence in rinse off products and anti-obesity products enriched with Garcinia atroviridis (asam gelugor)," he told reporters after the opening of a seminar on medicinal and aromatic plants here Tuesday.
Dr Abdul Razak said the institute was currently upgrading its Herbal Technology Centre (HTC) into a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified premise as part of the effort to enhance the centre and the new premise was expected to be operational early next year.
"The centre will be able to provide pilot scale herbal processing technology in addition to our current list of technical services offered to herbal industries such as lab-scale extraction, antioxidant testing and heavy metal analysis," he said.
The centre would also help the herbal product manufacturers to compete their products in a global market and produce more quality and safe products through scientific process, he said.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Sazmi Miah said most of the local herbal producers were not keen to market their products at higher levels because they did not see the demand and the potential of the products due to lack of packaging and marketing strategies.
"I hope there will be more efforts to market and export our herbal products because it will increase our economy and promote our natural resources," he told reporters after opening the seminar.
Sazmi said Malaysia has the potential to be one of the major players as well as being the main herbal product manufacturer in the world.
He said the seminar provided an opportunity for those involved in herbal products research and marketing to publicise their findings to the business community and explore commercialisation possibilities.
In Malaysia, more than 6,000 species of plants with medicinal properties have been used in various traditional remedies like Tongkat Ali, Kachip Fatimah, Dukung Anak, Mengkudu and Lempoyang, he said.
The two-day seminar, themed "Harnessing Cures From Nature: Trends and Prospects", is held in conjunction with Herbal Asia 2005, organised by Frim in collaboration with GITEX (M) Sdn Bhd.
-- BERNAMA
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