KARACHI, Sept 8: A six-day international workshop on the development of medicines from plants got under way at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry on Monday.

About 56 delegates from 20 OIC countries are participating in the workshop, which focuses on medicinal plants and the role they can play in the health and financial sectors.

The workshop, which is being held jointly by COMSTECH and the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, will enable the participants to acquire practical training.

Speakers of the inaugural session, including the chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Dr Attaur Rahman, the vice chancellor of the University of Karachi, Dr Zafar Saied Saify, the chairman of the HEJ Foundation, Latif Ibrahim Jamal, discussed the utility of plant-based medicines.

The speakers said the scientists and industrialists of OIC countries should focus their research on the development of new molecules, drugs, prospecting of new genes and the whole field of pharmocogenomics.

At a press briefing on the workshop, the acting director of the HEJ Research Institute expressed his dissatisfaction over the manufacturing and practice of herbal medicine in the country and urged the government to develop a regulatory system.

He said that efforts would be made during the workshop to enable academic institutions, research centres and industries to get practical training of various aspects of the development of medicines from plants.

He said the Muslim world, like other developing countries, had a rich and unbroken tradition of the use of plants as medicines. He added that the Muslim countries were home to major plants and flowers.

He deplored that most developing countries preferred to export crude herbs rather than develop them. He added that this practice caused a great deal of loss to the developing countries.

He underlined the need for exploiting the natural resources of the country. He said the natural resources should be employed in such a way that they became acceptable to the quality-conscious consumers of the West.

He said the Muslim countries should devise a mechanism whereby they could share knowledge and expertise with one another.