LIPI spurs medicinal organisms' research
LIPI spurs medicinal organisms' research
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has
launched two databases concerning the country's medicinal
organisms and their chemical structure in order to attract
industry and the private sector to work with researchers in
discovering and producing modern medicines.
Although the country has resources and researchers with good
potential, the results of the research are still "kept safely in
the drawer," LIPI's deputy of biological sciences Endang Sukara
stated on Monday at the sidelines of a discussion on the
discovery of natural drug products held before the actual launch.
"The dissemination of information about the results of the
research is important to raise the awareness of industry and the
private sector when carrying out research and development, to
discover better cures through mutual collaboration," he said.
In an effort to facilitate access to the research, LIPI has
set up a website about natural products having a bioactive
origin, as well as pharmaceutical research data established at
the institution's Research and Development Center for Applied
Chemistry (RDCAC-LIPI).
The data provided at http://www.bimaps.lipi.go.id is mainly
from research into Indonesian medicinal plants, due to less
intensive research being carried out on bioactive material from
the country's marine organisms, microbiological and animal
resources.
The website, consisting of documents on more than 3,000
plants, is expected to help with data on the discovery of natural
drug products, their standardization and potential market. For
the first phase, it consists of 800 entries that will be added to
each month.
The website http://www.bichems.lipi.go.id provides 8,000
entries on the chemical structure of bioactive plant molecules
and marine organisms found in nature.
A speaker in the discussion, Setijati D. Sastrapradja from
Naturae Indonesiana (Naturindo), said that Indonesia should take
advantage of this good bargaining chip in collaborating with
developed countries that have the technology and capital.
"We already have law on genetic resources and we have the raw
materials. But, can we compete with developed countries
scientifically? Those holding the technology are the private and
industrial sectors.
"Therefore, to facilitate the involvement of the private
sector in the field of access to and transfer of technology, it
is expected that the law will deal with such an issue," she said.
Setijati, who is a LIPI's senior researcher, added that the
legislation should recognize the importance of patent and other
intellectual property rights, as stipulated in the international
Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Indonesian rainforest is a haven for medicinal plants and
LIPI has successfully cooperated with the U.S. University of
Illinois Program for Collaborative Research In the Pharmaceutical
Sciences (PCRPS) in drug discovery and sustaining resources.
John M. Pezzuto from the university revealed in the discussion
that from 3,000 species, the team had found about eight compounds
that are likely to be effective as anticarcinogens.
His colleague Harry Fong, meanwhile, said that similar
research into forests in Vietnam and Laos has found extracts
effective in curing infectious diseases, such as malaria and
tuberculosis, and in helping to prevent Human Immuno-deficiency
Virus (HIV).
He also revealed that in this kind of collaboration royalties
are shared, whereby some 50 percent to 62 percent of them go to
the host country, from where the genetic materials have been
obtained. (bby)