ABSTRACT
The Centre of Excellence in Wood Engineered Products (CeWEP) established in early 2017 aimed in making Sarawak the hup of the down-stream industry especially for the planted timber species. Wood engineered products generally produced by binding the strands, particles, fibres, veneers or boards of wood, together with adhesives to form composite materials. They are products precisely design with specifications and tested to meet national or international standards. Sarawak with land areas of 124,500 sq km, generated wood and timber products of more than 5 million metric tons since 2012 onward. These forest products catered mostly for the upstream industries such as sawn timbers, plywood, veneer, wood moulding, laminated boards, particleboards, MDF, woodchip, charcoal/briquette, laminated flooring and wood pellets. Advanced timber products have not been fully emphasized yet. It is high time for the Sarawak state to shift gear in the timber downstream industries focusing in wood engineered products from planted timber species. The state has for the past decade involved in timber plantation activities. Seven (7) timber species namely the Acacia mangium, Azadirachta excelsa, Kyaya ivorensis Neolamarckia cadamba, Octomeles sumatrana, Paraserianthes falcataria, and Tectona grandis have been planted in various location in the state. With an area of 2.8 million ha of planted forest, the state is seriously intended to increase the production of the downstream timber industry which is equivalent to the existing industry in Peninsular Malaysia. Timber downstream industries, such as laminated/composited furniture & construction materials that generate high income, are expected to be actively produce in 2030. The CeWEP is still at an early stage of its establishment. The occurrence of the Covid-19, especially from 2020 to 2022, has slowdown the progress pace of the centre. As of now, CeWEP has managed to reach stage 2 in the ten years of strategic planning. The repercussion progress will somehow be made to ensure the planning is completed successfully in 2030. With efforts being currently made by those involved in the University of Technology Sarawak (UTS) and with close cooperation and support by other internal and external agencies/networking, the CeWEP will play an important in utilizing the planted timber species in generating income for the rural people and Sarawak state government
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants has always been a subject of interest for human being from ancient times due to health benefits. Researchers found that, people in different regions of the world used the same or similar plants for health benefits. Medicinal plant research includes many fields like drug discovery, ethnobotany, traditional and indigenous medicines. During corona pandemic we realised that there are no effective therapies available for new and remerging infectious diseases. Public health badly affected due to drug resistant microorganism and appearance of new disease causing microbes. Due to increasing side effects of synthetic drugs and uncontrolled infectious diseases researchers have taken interest in natural sources of medicines and have screened a large number of plants for new bioactive compounds. Natural products have been a well-known source of various molecules in the process of drug discovery and many bioactive natural product derivatives. Stereo chemical and structural properties of natural products are characteristics which are responsible for exploring novel molecular diversity. One of the successful strategies for the investigation of new medicinal agents from plants includes screening of plant extract, fractions followed by the purification of the constituents. Several plants and their products have been evaluated for their antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. In present study, the ethanolic extract of the heartwood of Tectona grandis Linn. was screened for antibacterial activity.