Nagoya City University (NCU) Japan specifically invited the Rector of Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Prof. Widodo, S.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.Med.Sc to give a public lecture to postgraduate students, lecturers, and researchers from NCU, Thursday (23/05/2023).
The general lecture material delivered by the Rector was themed “Bioinformatic and holistic paradigm of the complexity of Indonesian traditional medicine for promoting human health”. This material is the latest research being developed by Prof. Widodo.
Prof. Widodo said that traditional medicines are growing rapidly in developing countries including Indonesia due to a poor insurance system.
“Jamu is one of Indonesia’s traditional medicines which is consumed by the majority of Indonesian people. Data says that more than 50% of Indonesian people consume jamu. One of the main reasons why herbal medicine is widely used is because the insurance system in Indonesia does not yet cover the poor, so they consume a lot of herbal medicine to treat their illnesses,” said Prof. Widodo.
Prof. Widodo further said that Indonesia also has biodiversity which opens up opportunities to develop research on traditional medicine. However, one thing that must be found a solution is regarding the standardization of product safety.
“Geographical factors cause Indonesia to have many plants that have the potential to be developed into traditional medicines, such as the Noni plant. However, when these plants were later extracted and mass-produced, one of the obstacles was that the toxin levels in the plants were still very high. Therefore, research continues to be developed to find the right method to reduce these toxins,” he said.
The symposium participants were very enthusiastic about following the course of the lectures, this was evident from the many questions asked by the participants. In total there were 23 questions from participants who were submitted to prof. Widodo. Some of the participants who were also researchers even expressed a strong desire to collaborate in research conducted by prof. Widodo.
Besides Prof. Widodo, in the symposium, lecturer at the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Dr. Wahyu Endra Kusuma also disseminated his research entitled Verification of the faunal boundary lines at Indonesian Archipelago based on the biogeography of freshwater and coastal fishes.
This research is a collaborative project between Prof. Yoshinori Kumazawa (NCU) and Dr. Wahyu Endra Kusuma (UB). The research was funded by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research – KAKENHI – (Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (B)) within a period of five years.
In general, this research is about verifying the flora-fauna dividing lines, Wallace’s Line, Weber’s Line, and Lydekker’s Line, by conducting phylogeographical exploration of fish groups (freshwater, brackish and marine) using the latest molecular techniques. [RG/Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
