NEWS

2022.03.11

Session 2 of the 2022 International Symposium of Asia Japan Research, “Asia Japan Research Beyond Borders: Global Sharing of Local Wisdom towards Human Longevity” was held on February 24, organized by Asia-Japan Research Institute, Ritsumeikan Univer

On Thursday, February 24, 2022, the second session of the 2022 International Symposium of Asia Japan Research, “Asia Japan Research Beyond Borders: Global Sharing of Local Wisdom towards Human Longevity”. Session 2 was entitled “Traditional Indonesian Drugs and Functional foods for Prevention of Diabetes Mellitus”

Moderator & Opening address and Closing Remarks: Prof. Miki Nishizawa, Dr., Vice Dean Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan brief introduction only
Dr. Mohamad Rafi, Division of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, IPB University, Bogor,
Title: “Metabolomics Approach for Developing Quality Control Method for Indonesian Medicinal Plants”
Mr. Hiroaki Kinoshita, Project Coordinator, HRD Project, the ASEAN Secretariat Greeting:
Ms. Kie Inoue, Assistant Project Coordinator, HRD Project, The ASEAN Secretariat
Title: “Human Resource Development Project in Collaboration with ASEAN and Japan”
Dr. Masruri, Vice Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Chemistry
Department, Faculty Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University, Jl. Veteran 65145 Malang, Indonesia Title: “Bioactivity of Indonesian Medicinal Plants as Antidiabetic and Antibacterial Agents”

The number of adults suffering from diabetes mellitus, especially type 2, are drastically increasing in Asia. It should be noted that serious complications of diabetes mellitus, such as cardiovascular disorders, neuropathy, retinopathy, and nephropathy reduce the quality of life and shorten the lifespan. The members of this project, organized by Dr. Nishizawa, are investigating traditional Indonesian drugs and functional foods to prevent diabetes mellitus. The researchers in Ritsumeikan University collaborate with other researchers from Daiichi University of Pharmacy and Kansai Medical University in Japan, and Brawijaya University in Indonesia. They are isolating constituents from traditional medicine known as Jamu in Indonesia and Kampo in Japan and analyzing their activities to elucidate the pharmacological effects, including their antidiabetic effects. It is hoped that this symposium will strengthen the network among the researchers and further develop the future works on traditional Indonesian drugs, as well as Kampo medicines.

First the moderator, Prof Mikio Nishizawa welcomed the presenters in his opening remarks and introduced the first speaker, Dr. Mohamad Rafi, who spoke about the Metabolomics approach for developing a quality control method for Indonesian medicinal plants. He began his talk by explaining that quality control for medicinal plants is essential if we want to create a standardized herbal medicinal product. This is because the medicinal plants’ composition or concentration of active compounds varies significantly due to many factors, such as the location of growth, harvest, postharvest methods, adulteration with closely related plants, and so on. Due to its chemical complexity, the quality control of medicinal plants is more complex than that of synthetic drugs. The development of a quality control method for medicinal plants becomes a crucial task to ensure the efficacy, safety, and quality of the herbal product. A targeted metabolite (chemical marker) and an untargeted metabolite (profiling or fingerprinting) in the metabolomics approach using chromatographic or spectroscopic techniques are often used to develop quality control methods for medicinal plants processing from raw material to finished product. A large amount of data is obtained from the metabolite profiling/fingerprinting analysis, so we need aid from chemometrics for data handling and modeling. Dr. Rafi described the developed quality control method of medicinal plants from Indonesia, primarily used for treating diabetes.

Next, Mr. Hiroaki Kinoshita, Project Coordinator of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Project ASEAN Secretariat gave a greeting and brief introduction to the project, after which Ms. Kie Inoue gave a presentation on the HRD project in collaboration with ASEAN and Japan. She explained that ASEAN has attained a certain level of economic development in food and agricultural sectors, while a gap on each industrial development level exists among ASEAN member states. Differences of management systems or standards in food-related industry among them can create barriers to better regional harmonization. Therefore, addressing these development gap and differences is not only an essential basis for economic upgrading but also a key for strengthening the global competitiveness of the region. For addressing these gaps and differences, knowledge and technology transfer and harmonization of management systems on food and agricultural standards can be one of the useful measures.

In order to address these circumstances, the Human Resource Development Project in Food-related Areas through Partnership with Universities in ASEAN Region was established in the ASEAN Secretariat in 2014 and is now in its 3rd phase from 2021 to 2023. Funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, this project has contributed to educating young researchers in the fields of agriculture and food, as well as other stakeholders such as governmental institutes, food-related companies and agricultural cooperatives in ASEAN member states through; establishing partnership programs on food value chains at universities in order to improve value chains by connecting each component of production, storage, processing and distribution of food and agricultural products.

In the last presentation, Prof. Masruri gave a lecture about the “Bioactivity of Indonesian Medicinal Plants as Antidiabetic and Antibacterial Agents”. Indonesia consists of several islands, such as Sumatera, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, and Irian Island, and this terrestrial distribution has a huge and unique diversity of plants. Traditionally, several plants have been employed as remedies to cure and prevent diseases. This herbal medicine known as Jamu is preserved until today. Prof. Masruri described the recent investigation, chemical analysis, and animal testing of extracts obtained from several plants including pinus merkusii and areca cathechu from Java Island, and demonstrated the antidiabetic and antibacterial activities of areca, showing that it was effective in significantly reducing the blood glucose level of diabetic rats.