PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

A/P Paul HENG

A/P Wai Keung CHUI

A/P Lai Wah CHAN

A/P Hwee Ling KOH

A/P Wing Yuen CHAN

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), including botanical products, are gaining popularity worldwide. The World Health Organisation estimates that about 65-80% of the world's population use traditional medicine as their primary healthcare. The global herbal medicine market is about US $60 billion. The market for Chinese Herbal Medicine has been projected to be $400 billion by 2010.

There is enormous pressure on the supply side of the business to develop and maintain adequate supplies of high quality raw botanicals. High demand may trigger over harvesting, yet many botanicals are not annual plants. Batches of harvested botanicals could be intentionally or unwittingly cut or adulterated with other plant species, usually ones growing in the same area or resembling the desired species in physical or morphological characteristics. In addition, the contents and quality of herbs may vary with many factors such as the species and age of the plant, season of harvesting, geographical location, processing methods and storage conditions. Besides misidentification and substitution, the safety of botanical products are also affected by adulteration with western drugs, presence of toxic heavy metals, intrinsic toxicity, contamination etc. Plants have been, and will continue to be, an important source of drugs (e.g. taxol, ephedrine, artemisinin) and of lead compounds in the discovery and development of new drugs.

The Pharmaceutical Laboratory for the Analysis and Evaluation of Traditional Medicine (PLANET^M) has been set up to consolidate research work on the quality, safety and efficacy of traditional medicine, as well as the discovery and development of potential novel therapeutics from botanical sources. Research activities include the pharmaceutical analysis of various Chinese herbal medicine, screening and identification of novel therapeutic agents and product development. Our laboratory has successfully developed a rapid method for mass screening of herbal medicine for undeclared drugs and created a database of more than 200 Chinese medicinal herbs commonly used in Singapore. We are developing analytical methods and building up our in-house library of chemical profiles of commonly used herbs for the purpose of rapid identification and authentication. Cases of adulteration, misidentification / substitution and mislabelling of some herbs / herbal products have been detected.In addition, we are also investigating the antimicrobial activity, anticonvulsant activitity, the effects on platelet aggregation and effects on blood coagulation, of selected herbs. Medicinal plants of Singapore will also be studied. Ethnobotanically guided studies and bioassay guided separation, isolation and purification will be performed. Effects of processing on chemical constituents and efficacy will also be investigated. Formulation and development of botanical products will also be carried out. Good quality products are important for randomized controlled clinical trials in future.