PESHAWAR, Nov 10: Scientists on Sunday underlined the importance of educating people about the natural resources specially plants and chemicals.

These views were expressed by local scientists and researchers during a one-day exhibition held at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to observe the World Science Day.

Several stalls at the venue offered useful information about various plants, which the scientists said could be used in raw form to treat several diseases.

Dr Lajbar Khan said that a local wild plant ‘Silybum Marianum’, marketed in medicinal form by a German-based herbal company, was very effective for the liver disorder, jaundice, gall-stones, cough, bronchitis and congestion.

He said that the plant could be used in raw form by the patients. The plant was being sold at $6,000 per kg in the European pharmaceutical market, he added.

“The foremost aim of the PCSIR was to develop and market the local natural resources for the maximum benefits of the people,” said Mohammed Tariq, director of the PCSIR, Peshawar.

He said that their aim was to impart the basic know-how to the people to enable them utilize the natural resources at lowest cost.

Mr Tariq was of the view that the golden era of science and philosophy in the Islamic world lasted for seven centuries from 700 to 1400 AD.

He said that the luminaries whose contributions dramatically laid the foundation of subsequent historic development in various scientific disciplines were Jabar-bin-Alhayan, Al-Khawarzami, Al- Razi,Ibn-al-Haisam and Al-Bairuni, but the Ummah ignored the subject of science and technology.

Japan, he said, was destroyed to a great extent in 1944 bombing but revived because of its devotion to science and technology.

The whole world, he said, was clearly divided by the technology boundary which separated the technologically developed and underdeveloped countries.

The developed ones, he added, had been able to use their scientists and engineers for rapid economic growth while the developing countries have been relegated to the role of consumers of the technological products.

Thus more and more funds from developing countries were transferred to developed countries, raising the poverty level in developing countries, he added.

Principal scientific officer Mumtaz Hussain said that the Bi Carbonate was being imported at high cost by Pakistan whereas the same could be found locally. Bi Carbonate could also be used to eliminate germs from potable water, he added.