CONTRIBUTION OF THE HEART OF BORNEO (HoB) INITIATIVE TOWARDS BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN SABAH, MALAYSIA

The Heart of   Borneo (HoB) declaration is a conservation agreement initiated by WWF and signed by three countries, i.e., Brunei       Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia in Bali, Indonesia on 12th February 2007 to protect more than 23 million hectares of forested region on Borneo Island. These forested areas could be well protected when conservation management plan is in place. One of the crucial activities to facilitate the planning and formulation of conservation plan is to conduct  scientific expeditions that include botanical exploration. The primary objective of the expedition is to identify the key conservation targets within the forest reserves. For the past five years, several expeditions have been conducted by the Sabah Forestry Department under the auspices of the HoB project to explore various forest reserves with conservation issues within the Heart of Borneo area. This paper will present the findings which include plant richness, endemism and plant conservation status in each forest reserves that has been explored. </p

Potential medicinal plants from Sungai Rawog Conservation Area: Documentation and a preliminary phytochemical screening on potential medicinal plants

Previous botanical surveys on vascular plants in Sungai Rawog Conservation Area (SRCA) have recorded 572 taxa, of which 124 are endemic to Borneo. Of these, only 18 taxa have been listed as known medicinal plants compared to the existing checklist used by the Indigenous people of Sabah. The number may not represent the total known medicinal plants in the studied area because some plants may have medicinal value yet to be explored. Thus, the present study aims to document and conduct phytochemical screening on selected potential medicinal plants from SRCA. The phytochemical detection for alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, and saponin was performed using Mayer's reagent, the Shinoda test, the Ferric chloride colour test, and the Froth test, respectively. A total of 90 taxa from flowering plants and ferns have been screened for their phytochemical compounds and identified as having potential medicinal value. Of the 90 taxa, 89 were found to be positive for phenolics, 51 for saponin, 44 for alkaloids, and 28 for flavonoids. The findings could provide a basis for selecting high-potential plants from SRCA for future in-depth chemical and pharmacological studies

Taxonomic revision of Ternstroemia (Pentaphylacaceae) in Borneo

Ternstroemia (Pentaphylacaceae) is a pantropical genus of about 100 species, consisting of trees, shrubs and epiphytes. Previous studies merely listed species and sometimes with brief species descriptions of Ternstroemia in separate accounts of the various regions in Borneo. There being no consolidated accounts for Borneo, a taxonomic study of the species of Ternstroemia in Borneo was undertaken. The aims of this study are to identify distinguishing characters, construct a taxonomic key to species, prepare descriptions and update the checklist of Ternstroemia in Borneo. A total of 120 specimens of Ternstroemia species were collected from 19 localities within Sabah and Sarawak from 2013 until 2018. A total of 1312 herbarium specimens of Ternstroemia species from 12 herbaria, i.e. A, BO, BRUN, K, KEP, KNP, L, PNH, SAN, SAR, SING and BORH, were examined. This study is the first comprehensive taxonomic revision of the genus in Borneo based on gross morphology of vegetative and reproductive characters. Detailed descriptions of all the Ternstroemia species including the key to the species and also an updated checklist of Ternstroemia in Borneo was prepared. There is no single morphological character which can be used to delimit any recognised species among the Ternstroemia in Borneo. A combination of vegetative and reproductive morphological characters especially the leaves sizes, textures and shapes and also the flower sizes are useful and more applicable ways to distinguish the 17 species of Ternstroemia in Borneo. From the study, 17 species of Ternstroemia are now recognised in Borneo, including eight species new to science. Sabah and Sarawak has the highest number of species among the geographical areas of Borneo with 17 species, followed by Kalimantan with 13 species and Brunei with 12 species. The number of endemic species of Ternstroemia in Borneo is very high with eleven species (64.7%), namely Ternstroemia beccarii Stapf ex Ridl., T. citnna Rid I., T. hosei Rid I., T. /owii Stapf, r. borneensis S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo, T. pereirae S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo, r. postarii S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo, T. long1folius S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo, T. crass,folium S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo, T. sugaui S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo and r. suleimanae S. Suzana & E. Soepadmo

CONTRIBUTION OF THE HEART OF BORNEO (HoB) INITIATIVE TOWARDS BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN SABAH, MALAYSIA

The Heart of Borneo (HoB) declaration is a conservation agreement initiated by WWF and signed by three countries, i.e., Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia in Bali, Indonesia on 12th February 2007 to protect more than 23 million hectares of forested region on Borneo Island. These forested areas could be well protected when conservation management plan is in place. One of the crucial activities to facilitate the planning and formulation of conservation plan is to conduct scientific expeditions that include botanical exploration. The primary objective of the expedition is to identify the key conservation targets within the forest reserves. For the past five years, several expeditions have been conducted by the Sabah Forestry Department under the auspices of the HoB project to explore various forest reserves with conservation issues within the Heart of Borneo area. This paper will present the findings which include plant richness, endemism and plant conservation status in each forest reserves that has been explored

Evolution of endemismon a young tropical mountain

Tropical mountains are hot spots of biodiversity and endemism(1-3), but the evolutionary origins of their unique biotas are poorly understood(4). In varying degrees, local and regional extinction, long-distance colonization, and local recruitment may all contribute to the exceptional character of these communities(5). Also, it is debated whether mountain endemics mostly originate from local lowland taxa, or from lineages that reach the mountain by long-range dispersal from cool localities elsewhere(6). Here we investigate the evolutionary routes to endemism by sampling an entire tropical mountain biota on the 4,095-metre-high Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. We discover that most of its unique biodiversity is younger than the mountain itself (6 million years), and comprises a mix of immigrant pre-adapted lineages and descendants from local lowland ancestors, although substantial shifts from lower to higher vegetation zones in this latter group were rare. These insights could improve forecasts of the likelihood of extinction and 'evolutionary rescue'(7) in montane biodiversity hot spots under climate change scenarios