Biotropics Malaysia adopts tongkat ali herb through American Botanical Council program

06 Nov 2017 --- The American Botanical Council (ABC) has recognized Biotropics Malaysia’s adoption of tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) through ABC’s Adopt-an-Herb botanical education program. Tongkat ali is a Southeast Asian flowering treelet that ABC notes has been used traditionally for a variety of purposes, including as an aphrodisiac, an adaptogen and a general health tonic.

Biotropics Malaysia is based in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, and was incorporated in 2007 to develop and commercialize the country’s bio-resources into reliable natural health products. Its tongkat ali adoption supports ABC’s extensive HerbMedPro database, ensuring that the resource remains up-to-date for researchers, health professionals, industry, students, consumers, and all members of the herbal and dietary supplements community, ABC notes.

ABC’s HerbMedPro is an interactive online database that provides access to important scientific and clinical research data on the uses and health effects of more than 250 herbs, spices, and medicinal plants.

Honored to adopt herb
“When ABC offered us an opportunity to ‘adopt an herb’ … we felt honored to take up the task,” writes Azreena Abas, Marketing and Technical Specialist at Biotropics Malaysia. “HerbMedPro is a great resource for the herbal industry and community in the US (globally too) and allows for the proper dissemination of credible information on tongkat ali.”

According to Abas, Malaysian tongkat ali is popular as an energy drink among the local aborigines and as a postpartum concoction. “It has evolved into a high-value herbal ingredient for supplements and health foods for both men and women,” Abas writes.

“A lot of misconceptions have arisen from inappropriate claims and use, so setting the information straight through a credible avenue provided by ABC … would be the best way to preserve the ‘right’ identity for Malaysian tongkat ali,” Abas adds. According to Abas, some of the misconceptions about tongkat ali have also arisen from adulterated products labeled to contain tongkat ali.

“We hope to showcase the best of Malaysia’s biodiversity through one of its treasures, the tongkat ali plant,” notes Abas. “The [body of research on] this plant is growing and we hope to have more people engaged in the practice of consuming tongkat ali and ethically commercializing the plant, using legitimate information such as [that] found on HerbMedPro.”

“ABC is grateful to the people of Biotropics Malaysia for their adoption of tongkat ali on ABC’s HerbMedPro database,” says ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. “Their adoption allows ABC to stay current on all of the new scientific and clinical publications on tongkat ali in peer-reviewed journals for the benefit of international researchers, educators, and industry members.”

“Tongkat ali has become popular in the past decade, in part due to the growing body of scientific research on this interesting medicinal plant,” notes Blumenthal. “Currently, thanks to Biotropics Malaysia, there are more than 175 scientific articles compiled on the tongkat ali record in HerbMedPro.”

Other herbs to recently be adopted as part of ABC’s program have included monk fruit, adopted by Layn, and rhodiola, adopted by Jiaherb.