Biodiversity and IP protection

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Thanks to Bernama, The Borneo Posts and the late 24 year Iban Lady, Helen Mena, who died because conventional medicine had failed to “cure” her, most of you have read about the good and the bad news about the availability of a CURE which could have saved her life and many others if only greed, selfishness and “piracy” are not embedded in all our human system of Bureaucracies and Businesses. The old societies and cultures know a lot of cures which can contribute towards a better and less inefficient human journey on this earth. We could enjoy better health and longer life if proper nutrition, exercise and less societal pressure are available to all and lastly cheaper and better curative services are available to those who need them. For example, a friend of mine is still recuperating from just a scorpion bite, despite two months of hospitalization and nursing services. This is totally unnecessary. If only he had known that I have the herb to cure him within just a few hours, he does not have to suffer these last few months. The need for profit and the laws to protect Intellectual properties, however, have hampered the development and availability of many health supplements and natural cures taking away unnecessary lives or giving untold pains and miseries to the unfortunates.

Let’s take the case of this humble herb, which I would like to call it for the time being, DUH PENAWAR or if the husband and/or the parents of Helen agree later on we could call it, “Helenmenaia” in her memory.

It is there all the while but I was not taught about it in my formal medical education. I had to watch a number of people related to me dying from “PARAQUAT POISONING” and heard many more who had died because of it as well as other poisoning because we are not taught about the most effective antidote which can give the cure as demonstrated by this herb. I finally heard about it when I eventually asked a Traditional Healer whether he knows of any herb, good for Paraquat poisoning after the death of my nephew’s son who was hospitalized and waiting to die in a District hospital for two weeks, where conventional medicine and myself failed to save him because the needed knowledge is NOT KNOWN presently to conventional medicine. He told me that there is a herb which he had used to save two of his relatives from “PARAQUAT POISONING” who had been hospitalized but “were sent home to die”.

“Feeding them with a fresh preparation of the herb, they are still alive till to-day”. he said.

Being naturally curious and knowing that what is very important to me is NOT WHAT I ALREADY KNOW BUT WHAT I DO NOT YET! It is “what I don’t know” is what I need to learn and learning is an on-going process. I thus waited and waited for the opportunity to study its effectiveness, efficacy and safety of the herb.

As for safety, it was simple. I just took a few leaves and taste and ate them. (Hey, wait don’t copy me “LAH” because some leaves are really poisonous. I tried one leaf in my friend’s garden, and it almost paralyzed my tongue until I took my antidote, only then my mouth became normal. Yea, what an Idiot i was and am….so don’t just simply try every leaf just to find out whether such is good to and safe or not… SAKIT PERCUMA NANTI….. KALAU MATI jangan salahkan saya… Bodoh sendiri jadi “copycat”….” However, by the simple tasting method, I know that the plant is safe to eat. I still eat or drink part of the potion which I make from the herb before I give it to the patients.

Next case study… Fortunately over time I was able to test the herb on two cases of weedicide poisonings, two snake bites, one wasp bite, one unknown bite. The last one was a case of poisoning from the urine of one type of caterpillars causing a “weeping skin reaction” on the left side of her neck as well as painful sensations under her skin and swelling on her left cheek, despite a week of conventional medical treatment. Treatment with the antidote, however, brought a cure in all cases: - for poisonings it took about two days for a complete recovery, the snake bites in less than twelve hours for total recovery with a single dose, bee bites a matter of few minutes, and for the caterpillar urine case in less than seven minutes the painful sensation was gone.

Yes, it is very effective in the seven cases tried so far. But what about other snakes like cobra, etc. Yet to be tested…. Other poisons, yet to be tried… Yes more studies and documentation to be done, this is why I wanted to work collaboratively with the Health Ministry, but to-date no response to my letter of offer. I understand their problem because our system won’t allow them to do so unless further testing and documentation said it is safe to do so. However it can be done as an adjunct therapy and study. It will take the courage of a decision maker to say, “YES”. Since the roadblocks are human created, any human being with the power to decide can take away the roadblocks. Worse still the world maybe deprive of this antidote, if for reasons best known to our present decision makers, more roadblocks can be created….. to its development and commercialization. So both expedition and destruction is possible. So let us hope SAVING MORE LIVES become our joint responsibility, duty and commitment. The lady needs NOT DIE!

IP protection is needed so that more stakeholders can benefit from any discovery. The process to obtain it has to be simplified so that it can do easily. Only benefits can be assured and the availability of the product to everyone is possible. Right now, because of the roadblocks put in place by the Ministries concerned, most of the good supplements and medicines, available in our jungle and known to the Indigenous population, are not available to those who need them. What have been leaked to the respective “experts” such as the “Bintangor tree” and “Tongkat Ali” now became the IP of others. But the knowledge belonged to the poor “sources” who remain poor and unknown and not recognized by the world.

Those supplements and medicine, which are already known to the world are beyond the reach of the poor. My pharmacist friend of mine told me of the high cost of registering any supplements also have increased the cost of the supplement.

The need to conserve of our tropical forest is now very obvious because of there GOD has provided us with all that we need for our survival on this planet. Before we destroy all the good plants which are of potential medicinal value, we have to take stock of our plant diversity. Biodiversity must be protected and studied so that full use of its availability can benefit all of us to lead a happy and healthy life besides economically.

Why do the Chinese and the Indians made the majority of the human population on this planet? From what I read, they are the only people who eat or drink the most diverse food in the world. Anything that “grows, swim or fly” becomes their sources of energy and wellbeing, except for beef amongst Hindus and pork amongst the Muslims. Foods are even classified in the Chinese diet into its various actions and functions: such hot, cold, bitter , sweet ,etc…
On top of their diverse dietary habits, they also use of a lot of herbs for medical purposes and drinking teas of various types for various reasons…… except those who want to make quick profit, they start to adulterate their foods and herbal medicines with harmful ingredients that we all know, read and/or hear of in the news- for example, Melamine in milk and milk products lately, Cortisone or others, known to those in our Public Health workers. So is the Indian system of Ayurvedic medical practice.

Thus as my old Chemistry Teacher, Dr. Sagunam who called, congratulated and told me, “Plant is life, without plant there will be no Life”. Take heed all. Plants are food, medicine and all. Without plants using the carbon dioxide we all emit, we will die in no time…. even if the potential absence of the OZONE layer will get all of us or the future generation roasted alive by the direct Sun radiations…. All those in the coastal cities will either move to higher grounds or get drowned as our ice cap will melt and flood even the New Yorkers! …