The aims to develop an integrated
Herbal Medicinal Knowledge Base
What is HMKB?
The aim is to develop an integrated Herbal Medicinal Knowledge Base (HMKB). The knowledge base will be built utilising latest Semantic technologies that enable relationship and links between concepts to be formed within the knowledge base. Knowledge (or data) acquired and stored in the knowledge base would come from many sources within the herbal medicinal industry. Validated R & D based data, aliphatic medicines plus traditional knowledge by symptoms would also be included in the knowledge base.
The primary objectives of the HMKB are:
- To have the most comprehensive knowledge base on herbal medicine and ethno-botanical
- To create a mechanism to continuously enrich the knowledge base to include other relevant information acquired in Malaysia and worldwide.
- To develop mutually beneficial partnerships with all relevant stakeholders in the global herbal medicinal industry that can benefit through knowledge available in the HMKB.
What HMKB will deliver?
- Integration of data stored in legacy and stand alone systems.
- Support for updates via mobile devices at remote locations.
- Semantic Knowledge base which is fully compliant to W3C standards.
- Visualize allowing for interactive knowledge exploration.
- Pattern matching and network analysis.
- Inference engine for discovering new phytol-chemical combinations.
What is HMKB market size and demand?
The current global market trends based on research by leading institutions in the pharmaceutical industry shows a growing need for herbal medicine based solutions that is strongly beginning to become an important alternative for healing purposes. Predominantly used as main alternative to modern medicine, Taiwan, India and China have long been adopting herbal based medicine as mainstream option. Latest reports, are indicating growing potential and acceptance of herbal based medicinal to remedy ill health. This has been reflected in the growing potential of the traditional medicine industry worldwide.
Currently, domestic participants dominate the scene for generics and over the counter (OTC) products, while multinational companies reign strong in branded/ethical drugs. According to Frost & Sullivan estimates, the Malaysian pharmaceutical industry, valued at $1,027 million in 2007, will grow to reach $1,800 million by 2013, at a CAGR of 10.5 percent.(Frost and Sullivan, 2008)
The current estimates for this market ranges between USD 40-100 billion with an average annual growth rate of 15 to 20% (Merican 2003 and Exim Bank 2003). (Source: Ramlan et al., (Journal of Chemical Engineering Malaysia, 2003). Malaysians consumed RM 2 billion worth of herbal products in 1997, which was double the amount spent per person as compared to consumers in the US (Merican 2003) These statistics show the commercial significance of this industry. Global market for herbal products, which include medicines, health supplements, herbal beauty and toiletry products, is estimated at around US $ 62 billion. Out of this, the market for herbal medicine alone is expected to reach US$ 26.2 billion in 2007. The global herbal product markets, (estimated at US $ 16.7 billion in 1997) are mainly in Europe and North America, which together account for 63% of the world market. The European market for herbal remedies accounts for 45% of the global market, and stood at US $ 7.5 billion in 1997. Germany and France are the most established markets with a share of 22% and 11% in Europe, respectively. China is the major exporter of traditional medicine to the world market. India needs to organize itself well to get any significant share in this growing market segment.
What is HMKB commercialize strategy?
The diagram below reflects main players involved directly and indirectly in developing the current and future state of the herbal medicine industry in Malaysia and to certain extend the global industry. The HMKB would be useful to all stakeholders in the industry but particularly R&D based institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Local and regional partners will be identified gradually to create awareness and develop commercial collaborators. Collaboration with local state agencies such as, Sabah Biodiversity Group, Local Medical Research Institutions like IMR and local pharmaceutical companies will be given high emphasis in early stage rollout.
Who and where are the HMKB Target market?
Taiwan experience:
In Taiwan alone, the value of the local herbal medicine market has been estimated at approximately NT$15–25 billion. Pharmaceutical application shares 20% of that amount, with the rest of the market taken up by food supplements. In 2001, imported herbal raw materials amounted to NT$1.8 billion, >80% of which is imported from Mainland China. This raised the local production value of Chinese medicine to NT$4.2 billion. The import market of herbal medicine for that period was valued at NT$10 million and the export market at NT$ 130 million, while the domestic demand reached NT$ 4.08 billion
India’s Experience:
India has a large number of valuable herbal and medicinal plants naturally grown mostly in fragile ecosystems that are predominantly inhabited by rural poor and indigenous communities. According to information, India has one of the world’s richest medicinal plant heritages with about 8,000 species being used by rural communities. Out of this, about 880 species are in active trade with 48 being exported and around 42 species being imported. In India, cultivation of herbal and medicinal plants is estimated to provide regular productive employment to 10 million tribal and women. It is estimated that the export earning through this industry would be raised to Rs. 10,000 crores by 2010 if proper strategic plan is executed by adopting a holistic approach to plan, production and marketing. With its vast biodiversity, India has tremendous potential and advantage in this emerging area and the opportunities are plentiful in India.
India’s Market Prospects
Herbal medicinal market consists of herbal extracts, aloe vera products, volatile oils and other medicinal products of plant origin for internal and external use. Europe and the United States are the two major herbal products markets in the world. India and China are the two major suppliers.
China’s Experience:
Based on a study carried out by hkc22.com, a division under ACON AG, a leading science and business consultancy, Herrbal Medicines reached USD 85 billion worldwide in 2007. China increased market share to 24 %. Growth rate over 10 % for Herbal Medicine and 15 percent for Traditional Chinese Medicine worldwide. Over 60 percent of the markets are only 150 different.The market for Herbal Medicine will grow with 8 to 12 percent up to 2015 and for Traditional Chinese Medicine with more then 15 percent per year up to 2015.
Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) market is rapidly developing since later of 1990s. In 2005, the output value of TCM amounted to RMB110.3 billion (about €11 billion), accounted for a quarter of the overall output value in China’s medical industry. The net yield and profits of TCM production is much higher than the average for the country’s medical industry. The total TCM market in China will rise to €18.8 billion in 2015.
China has more than 6,500 Chinese herbs determined and over 600 herb bases to produce the Chinese medicinal raw materials. Customs figures show China exports 240,000 tons of medicines annually, of which 200,000 tons are raw herbs. The exported raw herbs accounted for 20 percent of the country’s annual harvest.
What is HMKB Marketing Strategy?
The marketing plan for HMKB will be developed based on its goals and strategies. The knowledge and networks that have been gained during research and analysis of the industry, and the competitive edge and resources that have been acquired will form the basis of the marketing strategies. Early stage marketing strategies will focus on development and strengthening of IDS Infotech as a player with a strong niche in the local herbal medicine industry. Participation in trade sales, effective promotional materials, online advertisement and strong corporate sales and marketing team will form part of the main marketing priorities in the early stages.
Goals of the Marketing Strategy
- Increasing value creation of the product itself;
- Increasing potential client base; and
- Increasing product and service networks.
Conclusion
Distributed data management, making it much easier for collaboration between centers anywhere in Malaysia and in the world.
Separation of taxonomic structure of a species from specimen data to accommodate the inevitable changes to taxonomic structures.
Without database schema, adding new data “attributes” is both direct and natural for Semantic database.
Easy integration of herbal data from different databases
Fereydoun Verdi Nejad
Arefeh Verdi Nejad