Promotion of biodiversity awareness and knowledge systems on the vast potential of natural water-loving aromatic and herbal forest plants in Peninsular Malaysia

The Malaysian tropical forests have been known to be an important source of medicines, food, spices, fuel and industrial raw materials. In this respect, Malaysia inherits and possesses a rich heritage of aromatic and herbal plants as sources for the production of essential oils, resins, turpentine, flavours and fragrances, as well as traditional medicines respectively. The health food market in Malaysia is growing steadily at about 15% per year. The Malaysian market was valued at RM35 million in 1994 and at RM45 million in 1995 and is growing steadily. The market value of herbs as medicinal plants in Malaysia was estimated to exceed RM 2 billion. This value is expected to increase when the Malaysian Government allows the implementation of herbs as medicinal plants to enter Government hospitals and medical clinics. Due to the inability of modern medicines to cope with disease such as aids, cancer, hypertension and diabetes, consumers are increasingly seeking alternative medicines for their well-being.As such, the current awareness of the vast potential of natural water-loving aromatic and herbal plants as an alternative source of health food and medicines has been increasingly popular among Malaysian. Towards this end, the use of aromatic and herbal plant based products for disease prevention and treatment has become increasingly acceptable in our Malaysian society. Further extensive research has been conducted by many related institutions in the country to examine how these resources can be utilised fully and its importance to the well-being of human as well as its potential financial rewards.Among more than 250,000 species of flowering plants of the world, it was estimated that at least 150, 000 species of them are distributed in the tropics. About 35,000 species can be found in ASEAN countries alone and less than 6,000 species are reported to have medicinal properties. Using conservative estimates there are more than 12,000 species in Malaysia and there would be more than a hundred drugs alone that can be discovered from the tropical forests in the country. This indicates that a large number of tropical plants species remains unknown in terms of their medicinal and therapeutic properties.In this connection, the paper discussed the ethnobotanical information and knowledge systems that can serve as an important guideline in selecting plant species for specific diseases. In addition, the paper suggested bioprospecting programme that would also include a careful evaluation and valuation of historical, as well as current claims of therapeutic values made by local cultures through traditional or indigenous knowledge. A mechanism is needed to address issues of intellectual property rights protection that will give equitable protection and benefit to all interested parties involved. The implementation of domestication and cultivation schemes of these aromatic and herbal water-loving plant species would require identification of aromatic and herbal plant with market prospects and potential for domestication should be advanced (production goals)implementation of the domestication processdesign of cultivation schemes (technique and management)testing and implementation of the optimal cultivation schemesdesign of the processing techniques, organization and managementmarket development (promotion, marketing, market outlets) and investigations on the options for the involvement of local population in cultivation (e.g raising seedlings for water-loving aromatic and herbal(medicinal) plant species growing programme. In this connection, in order to improve the efficiency of bioprospecting, future biodiversity awareness programme and knowledge systems to be implemented must be holistic and well-coordinated. The success of such programme with focus on forests, , require the participation of various interest groups such as academicians, researchers, scientist, botanists, chemists, pharmacologists, healers and environmental educators to conserve traditional knowledge of potential water-loving aromatic and herbal plants and to discover useful drugs. Through such efforts, we can achieve the goal of sustainable harvesting and fuller utilisation and conservation of tropical forest resources.The paper also underlines the need to share wealth of dispersed knowledge on plant resources available for education, extension, research and industry through systematic extension methods such as computerised data bank (linkages and networking through hompages and websites) and illustrated guidelines, handbooks and other useful and contructive means. A thorough knowledge of plant resources is essential for human life and plays a key role in ecologically balanced land-use systems.Collaborations and references could also be made through international programme such as the Plant Resources of South East Asia (PROSEA). In this regard, we are becoming more conscious of the importance and diversity of our aromatic and herbal plants heritage. We depend and will remain dependent on the forest resources, especialy water-loving aromatic and herbal plants as sources of health food and medicinal benefits for many years to come.