‘Kayu Bebi’ for oral care

Story and photos by PAULINE HO
sarawakstar@thestar.com.my

A PLANT which is traditionally used by the Bidayuh community as a toothbrush and mouthwash in the old days was among the unique items displayed at the recent state-level Sejiwa Senada programme at SK Perbandaran No. 3 in Sibu.

“Kayu Bebi” was traditionally used by the Bidayuh in Kpg Semadang in Penrissen for oral care, said Asha D Kaushal, communications officer of the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC).

She said apart from using it as a toothbrush, the Bidayuh actually boiled the plant for mouthwash as well.

Ancient: A closer look at the traditional toothbrush.

“It is said to be slightly bitter,” she when met at the SBC booth.

Asha said the jungles in Sarawak were very rich with various species of plants good for personal care and medicinal purposes.

Due to changing priorities however, the people at large generally do not rely so much on the jungle any more, especially when medicine is easily available in town.

She said SBC has been entrusted with initiating intensive biotech-based research and development on the state’s biological resources, particularly those that have been utilised by indigenous communities.

At the same time, the centre is facilitating the documentation of the fast disappearing traditional knowledge of indigenous communities on how they utilise plants.

“We are hoping the local entrepreneurs can go into commercial development of products from our jungle plants and ultimately share the benefits with the communities who have shared their knowledge with us,” she said.

At the moment, the centre is working through its Traditional Knowledge Programme (TKP) with communities in the highlands of Sarawak to extract oil from a plant called Pahkak and screen the oil for its bioactivity.

Because of its anti-microbial properties, Pahkak, found in Bario, Lawas, and Kpg Kiding in Padawan, has potential to be developed into household products like disinfectant, handwash or even incorporated into soap, she said.

“The people in these communities use Pahkak basically for cooking and for gas in the stomach,” said Asha, pointing out that the core objective of TKP is that the knowledge the communities have will not be lost, to ensure proper documentation and to make sure any commercialisation of products as a result of the sharing of the communities will rightly come back to them in the form of benefit sharing.

“So far the basic form of benefit sharing is with Kpg Kiding in Padawan and Long Kerabangan in Lawas. The communities are taught to distil oil from Pahkak using field distillation unit,” she said.

She added that SBC paid the village folk for the oil which was then used for screening in the lab for product development.

Other forms of benefit sharing include contract farming, plant collection and setting up trust funds for the communities, she said.