Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC) in collaboration with the indigenous communities of Sarawak has produced essential oil from Litsea tree, trademarked as LITSARA®.
“Through the collaboration, they have made a range of natural-based personal care products such as soap, shampoo, air freshener and essential oil for aromatherapy,” said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg in his winding up speech during the state assembly sitting yesterday.
He added that the state has the potential as the unexploited biodiversity is abundant.
“Collaborations with world class researchers and industries would enable us to produce nature-based medicinal, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products that would be in high demand globally in the future.
“The global wellness industry, which includes key sectors in personal care and anti-aging, health and nutrition, and so on including wellness tourism, has a global market of $4.2 trillion in 2017 alone.
“We also acknowledge that the Research and Development (R&D), especially in biodiversity is another potential source of revenue for the state to embark on.
“For this reason, I have directed the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC) to broaden its scope by commercialising its research findings. For now, SBC has documented 6,000 plants including 25,000 plants and 29,000 microbial extracts kept in the SBC Natural Product Library,” said Abang Johari.
SBC is also collaborating with its foreign partners on an algae project since 2012. It has a collection of 653 microalgae for various applications.
SBC is experimenting the scale-up production of algae in an outdoor facility using Internet of Things (IoT), smart monitoring and digital analytics to boost production.
LitSara is a project that involves the indigenous communities such as the Kelabit, Lun Bawang and Bidayuh.
The project aims to ensure that the indigenous communities’ traditional knowledge is valued by those who use it to develop a range of products and the benefits are shared equitably.
This is to ensure that the indigenous communities play a pivotal role in adding value to their traditional knowledge and local biodiversity and are also duly acknowledged through recognition and equitable sharing of benefits arising from product commercialisation.
LitSara is a project with Sarawak Biodiversity Centre that utilises the acquisition of Prior Informed Consent (PIC) from participating communities, who are actively involved in implementing Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).
