Remedies containing agarwood in selected traditional malay medical manuscripts

Agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) is an Asian native plant with various pharmaceutical potentials proven by recent scientific studies. It has been used for decades in ancient India, China, and the Malay Archipelago traditions. Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine have been widely accepted and integrated into the current medical system. Regrettably, the traditional medicine of the Malay people has not reached this desired level despite the availability of knowledge as recorded in the Traditional Malay Medical (TMM) manuscripts. Agarwood is one of the materials observed in the traditional remedy formulations in TMM. Therefore, this work aims to explore the remedies in the TMM manuscripts with a focus on agarwood. Seven TMM manuscripts: MSS 2999, MSS 2515, MS 1998.400, Khazanah Perubatan Melayu Tumbuhan Ubatan, Kitab Tib Ilmu Perubatan Melayu, Khazinat al-Insan and Kitab al-Rahmah Fi al-Tibb wa alHikmah in the collection of the Malaysia National Library were reviewed systematically. The study finds around 100 agarwood-related formulations to treat around 20 diseases, including inner and physical illnesses, a specific approach to explicate the remedy that includes a discussion on selected Quranic verse and taboos, different sources of materials; plants, animals, and minerals, definitions on selected processing and dosing terms, three main methods to extract the materials; direct extraction, through heating or cooling, and maceration, and two ways to take the remedy; orally or externally. Findings from this study can be used as a reference for the practical application of the Malay traditional medication into current scientific development, verifying the relevancy of the discovery of new evident-based alternative medicine while safeguarding TMM as a national heritage

GC-MS analysis and antibacterial activity of Aquilaria malaccensis leaf extract

Ethnopharmacological practices have shown significant evidences of agarwood material as having myriad of pharmacological activities including anticancer, antipyretic and antioxidant. The complexity and variability of the chemical constitution of the plant establishes the quality of the medicinal products. The present study was carried out to identify the phytochemical constituents of both derivatized and non-derivatized Aquilaria malaccensisleaf ethanolic extract (ALEX) and to study the anti-bacterial activity of ALEX extracted using Soxhlet extraction method. The metabolite profiling of bioactive compounds of ALEX samples were conducted using gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with the principal component analysis (PCA). The screening on the bacterial activity of the extract was determined by using modified Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method against leading bacterial pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Vibrio Vulnificus.GC-MS analysis of ALEX reveals a total of 127 compounds from the derivatized sample and only 22 compounds in the non-derivatized sample. Several biological active compoundsthat werefound in ALEX samples include hexadecanoic acid, trimethyl ester, hexadecenoic acid, ethyl ester, 2(4H)- Benzofuranone, 5,6,7,7a-tetrahydro-4,4,7a- trimethyl-, trans-9-Octadecenoic acid, trimethylsilyl ester and 4-Isopropylphenol, trimethylsilyl ether. ALEX showed comparable anti-bacterial activity with zone of inhibition of 6.0 - 15.7 mmfor gram positive bacteria and 2.0 - 13.0 mm for gram negative bacteria against control which is Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Penicillin was used as positive controlexhibited strong zone of inhibition of 21.0 – 28.3 mm. The antibacterial activity results indicate that ALEXpossessed mild to stronginhibitory activities against the pathogenic bacteria due to presence of various phytochemical constituents which can be used as source of drugs to fight infections caused by susceptible bacteria

Remedies containing agarwood in selected traditional Malay medical manuscripts

Agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) is an Asian native plant with various pharmaceutical potentials proven by recent scientific studies. It has been used for decades in ancient India, China, and the Malay Archipelago traditions. Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine have been widely accepted and integrated into the current medical system. Regrettably, the traditional medicine of the Malay people has not reached this desired level despite the availability of knowledge as recorded in the Traditional Malay Medical (TMM) manuscripts. Agarwood is one of the materials observed in the traditional remedy formulations in TMM. Therefore, this work aims to explore the remedies in the TMM manuscripts with a focus on agarwood. Seven TMM manuscripts: MSS 2999, MSS 2515, MS 1998.400, Khazanah Perubatan Melayu Tumbuhan Ubatan, Kitab Tib Ilmu Perubatan Melayu, Khazinat al-Insan and Kitab al-Rahmah Fi al-Tibb wa alHikmah in the collection of the Malaysia National Library were reviewed systematically. The study finds around 100 agarwood-related formulations to treat around 20 diseases, including inner and physical illnesses, a specific approach to explicate the remedy that includes a discussion on selected Quranic verse and taboos, different sources of materials; plants, animals, and minerals, definitions on selected processing and dosing terms, three main methods to extract the materials; direct extraction, through heating or cooling, and maceration, and two ways to take the remedy; orally or externally. Findings from this study can be used as a reference for the practical application of the Malay traditional medication into current scientific development, verifying the relevancy of the discovery of new evident-based alternative medicine while safeguarding TMM as a national heritage

Effects of agarwood at multiple stages of carcinogenesis: a systematic review

This systematic review sought to determine whether preclinical biological and mechanistic evidences of agarwood materials reported at multiple carcinogenic stages are significant to support plausibility of agarwood materials as potential therapeutics for cancer. Agarwood materials have been reported to have pre-clinical (in vitro and in vivo) evidences of anti-cancer effects in various types of cancer, however the diverse range of types of agarwood species and materials as well as carcinogenesis stage pose a challenge to discern the potential candidate or scheme for further work. More recent reports on agarwood toxicity further complicates the search for the potential therapeutics. Study selection criteria was determined based on framework outlined by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) International/University of Bristol (UoB). In addition, care was taken to follow PRISMA reporting guidelines as closely as possible. Anti-cancer effect in the studies must be related to properties of antigenotoxic, apoptosis, antioxidant, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, anti- attachment, anti-spreading, anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic. Papers that are published other than in English; review paper, comments and opinions; short paper (less than 6 pages), poster keynote and abstract; and papers published in 1900 and below are excluded. Search strategy was applied to selected electronic databases including Scopus, Springerlink, Taylor & Francis Online, Cambridge Core, Pub MEDLINE, Oxford Academic, Science Direct and Wiley Online Library. Number of 4473 studies were initially identified and 860 studies were included following screening. After removing duplicates, 112 papers were further analysed for eligibility. Presently, 47 studies judged eligible. Interim findings showed several characteristic trends where type of materials studied ranges from leaf, branch and essential oil; species studied are region/country specific but types of cancer studied are not research group-specific. Initial conclusion from the preclinical studies could be made where different species and types of agarwood material may have effects at multiple carcinogenesis stage in various types of cancer

Abstracts of the International Halal Science Conference 2023

This book presents the extended abstracts of the selected contributions to the International Halal Science Conference, held on 22-23 August 2023 by the International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), IIUM, Malaysia in collaboration with Halalan Thayyiban Research Centre, University Islam Sultan Sharif (UNISSA), Brunei Darussalam. With the increasing global interest in halal products and services, this conference is timely. Conference Title:  International Halal Science ConferenceConference Acronym: IHASC23Conference Theme: Halal Industry Sustainability Through ScienceConference Date: 22-23 August 2023Conference Venue: International Islamic University (IIUM), MalaysiaConference Organizer: International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART), International Islamic University (IIUM), Malaysi