KOTHALAHIMBUTU

Kothala Himbutu, a medicinal plant

Basically the plants, algae and yeastgoing by the patent

application are listed to point out the various ingredients that

can be extracted from these natural materials to create

emulsions and dispersions using the method they have patented.

As typical examples of lipid ingredients contained in these

plants the patent cites enumerated fatty acids, glycerides,

complex lipids, terpenoids, steroids, and prostaglandins as some

of them. Nowhere in the patent application is there any

proprietary claim on Kothala Himbutu or any ingredient derived

from it or from the other plants, algae and yeast.

Kothala Himbutu (Salacia reticulata) is also found in India and

secondly a simple Internet search showed that there are close to

22 Indian suppliers who export Kothala Himbutu worldwide. This

is considering there were only one supplier in Japan and one

supplier in Sri Lanka. The eight patents Fujifilm Corporation

has supposedly filed for Salacia are for eight methods of

preparing emulsions using their methods and nowhere do they

claim in those preparation processes that Salacia is an

ingredient and they are patenting it, unless of course there is

another patent application not in the public domain that does

so.

Bio-piracy is a threat we should be aware of and have measures

in place to combat. The more important lesson that can be

learned from this issue is that other countries are investing

heavily on research using natural ingredients and why we are

not? If we are smart then we should try to emulate these efforts

since very little similar research has been conducted by Sri

Lankan scientists or scientific institutions on our natural

resources. The biggest question again is why? Sri Lanka has

scientists and science practitioners in its scientific community

who have brought incredible credit to the country and have

earned the respect and commendations of the international

community and continue to do so.

The reality is they face many challenges when it comes to

conducting research either in the laboratory or in the field in

Sri Lanka. The biggest challenge is the incredible stubbornness

and obstinacy in many Government institutions to support and

encourage research and the lack of Government and institutional

support to conduct research.

There are Research Committees established in some Government

institutions whose only function it seems is to refuse

permission for proposals that are submitted to do research!

Pedantic and archaic legislature does not help matters either.

While it is important to establish a national task force to

address the issues of bio-piracy, indigenous biodiversity and

knowledge it is as equally or more important to address the

issues such as why there is no similar research being conducted

in Sri Lanka and why there is so little Government and

institutional support to conduct basic and specific scientific

research in the country.