1
Kamarudin Mat Salleh
Department of Botany,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Abstract
Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability among living organisms within ecological systems in which they occur; as well as the way they interact with each other in their environment. It has become a common practice to ellaborate biodiversity in terms of ecosystem, species and genes, corresponding to three fundamental and hierarchically-related levels of biological organisation.
The Malaysia Biodiversity Online (http://biodiversity.ukm.my) was established with the fund from the Japan-Malaysia Research Cooperation on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Tropical
Bioresources in November 1996. This initiative is highly succesfull and was selected as one of examplary models for diversity information. Currently many important online databases are available in the Malaysia Biodiversity Online server. These include Herbarium UKMB Online,
Plant Systematic Reference Database (PLASY), Ethnobotany of Malaysia, Native Edible Plants of
Sabah (NEP), Fraser’s Hill Flora Online and UKM’s Wildlife DNA Database. The Herbarium
UKMB Online presents collection databases of the Herbarium Mohd Kassim Rejab, one of the major research herbaria in Malaysia. These online databases are the first in South East Asia.
Identification status, species checklists per collector, collection localities or dates can be querried interactively. To compliment collection databases, Plant Systematic Reference Database (PLASY) was designed to serve users with literature available in the Herbarium. The Ethnobotany of
Malaysian Plants was initiated as a continuation of our effort to develop a comprehensive database for Malaysian medicinal, poisonous and aromatic plants. Plants of cultural and historical importance, such as those used as basis for place names, was incorporated. This database was ready in the middle of 1997 and currently hosts nearly 16,000 native plant names from about
4600 species. The Ethnobotany of Malaysia Plants inherited part of the Native Edible Plants of
Sabah, earlier project started in the late 1980's in the then Herbarium Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia Sabah Campus (UKMS). It was designed to prepare an inventory and document the collection of wild edible plants of Sabah. Other botanical database available in the server is the
Fraser’s Hill Flora Online. This homepage is dedicated to the fragile ecosystem evaluation research at Fraser's Hill. The Malaysia Biodiversity Online server has also been building up reputation as a regional biodiversity e-mail forwarding and Listserver's services provider. In this respect, it acts as an electronic e-mail server (herbarium.ukm.my) forwarding re-router and
Internet Listserver subscription hub. There are 7 professional Listserver's groups currently hosted by The Malaysia Biodiversity Online server x 1
Paper presented at the Consultative Roundtable Workshop on the Implementation of National Bioinformatics and
Biotechnology Network (NABBINet), 11th - 13th August 1998, Puri Pujangga Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
Bangi. The author can be contacted by email : pakdin@ukm.my
and his homepage is at http://pakdin.fsh.ukm.my

Introduction
As one of the 12 designated ‘megadiversity’ countries of the world, Malaysia shoulders a heavy responsbility in conservation of its natural resources. The flora and faunal of Malaysia is exceedingly rich and unique. It was conservatively estimated that there are about 12,500 species of flowering plants, and more than 1,100 species of ferns and fern allies in Malaysia. Much remains to be known of the flora of the country, especially of lower plants such as the bryophytes, algae, lichens and fungi. The diversity of fauna in the country is also great. In the invertebrates there are about 300 species of wild mammals, 700-750 species of birds, 350 species of reptiles,
165 species of amphibians and more than 300 species of freshwater fish. While there are about
1200 species of butterflies and 12,000 species of moths, a conservative estimate is that there are more than 100,000 species of invertebrates. Endemism in the flora and fauna is high.
Over the last 30 years or so Malaysia experienced an extremely rapid socio-economic growth. As a consequence the country has lost much of its natural resources, including plant and animal species, through ecosystem destruction and degeneration. Plant species were lost due to logging activities, opening of forested areas for resettlement and new townships, extensive cultivation of rubber, oil palm and cocoa, the building of roads and highways, and the impoundment of hydroelectricity dams, among others.
Nevertheless, Malaysia still has large areas under forest. In 1978, the National Forestry Council approved the setting up of the Permanent Forest Estate (PFE) amounting to 12.73 million hectares at that time but later enlarged to 14.28 million hectares. The main aim of this move was to ensure that the forest under the PFE will be maintained in perpetuity and those areas designated for production will be subjected to sound forest management practices to maintain the forest as a renewable resource. Presently the total area under forest in Malaysia is estimated to be
18.91 million hectares or 57.5 percent of the total land area (Table 1).
Table 1. Extent of forest cover in Malaysia in 1997 (million hectare)
Malaysia
Permanent Forest Estates 4.68 2.78 1.90
* Productive
* Protection
3.07
1.00
0.53
14.28
6.00
10.85
3.60
5.00
3.43
National/ Wildlife Parks
Stateland Forest
TOTAL
0.74
0.43
0.38
0.47
1.00
1.61
2.12
2.51
5.85
*Total land area = 32.86 million hectares
4.45 8.61 18.91
Realizing the need to conserve its biological diversity, Malaysia participated actively in all expert and intergovernmental meetings that negotiated the text of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD). The CBD was inspired by the world community's growing concern on the loss of world’s biological resources and our renewed commitment to sustainable development. It was indeed an important landmark in the conservation of biological diversity, promoting sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
Malaysia signed the treaty at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, and ratified the treaty on 24 June 1994, the 65 th country to do so. Malaysia has been participating actively in all post-Rio meetings of the Convention: the two Intergovernmental Committee Meetings, the
Meeting of Scientific Experts, and all the four meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP)

and the meetings of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
(SBSTTA), currently holds the Chair of SBSTTA.
Soon after the Earth Summit in June 1992, Malaysia established the framework for strengthening biological diversity activities in the country. Committees dealing with policy as well as technical issues were established. Through this structure, the National Policy on Biological Diversity, which includes Strategies and Action Plan of Programmes, was developed.
Clearing House Mechanism of the CBD
The Convention on Biological Diversity encourages special attention in promoting technical and scientific co-operations among contracting parties, in particular in helping developing countries to develop and strengthen national capasities, by means of human resources development and institution building. This was explicitly stated in the Article 18 of the Convention, as a preamble to the need of the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM). The CBD's Clearing-House Mechanism was originally established to promote and facilitate technical and scientific cooperation within the scope of the Convention (CBD Article 18(3) and COP Decision I/3). However, decisions taken by COP2 and COP3 have clearly broadened the role of the Clearing-House Mechanism in facilitating the implementation of the Convention, that is to achieve all the three main objectives of the Convention: x the conservation of biological diversity x the sustainable use of its components x the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources
More importantly, the Conference of the Parties has decided that the CHM should provide support to the decision-making processes, at policy and management levels (Decision III/4). The following kinds of support have been called for by the CBD from the CHM: x disseminate/exchange/share: information, experiences, technologies, research results, assessments, case-studies, lessons, reports and newsletters; x facilitate/promote access to: research, technologies, cooperation, benefit sharing and public awareness; x promote/facilitate linkages between different stakeholders: groups needing solutions to specific problems, holders of technologies, technology-transfer brokers, enabling agencies with funds for technology transfer, policy-makers, managers, scientific organizations, government agencies, international organizations, other related international conventions and programs, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the general public.
Under the CHM mechanism, all the parties to the Conference will establish a national node for the CHM which would be linked to the main node in the Secretariat. A fully functional national focal points will provide a set of services such as x a link to key institutions relevant to CBD x a link to Special Interest Networks (Thematic focal points) x
Clearing-House Mechanism training x establishing and maintaining guidelines x sponsoring development of technological solutions and incorporation of emerging technologies
The Asian Regional Meeting on the Clearing-House Mechanism was held in Kuala Lumpur in
October 1997. Subsequently, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia was designated as the national node by the National Committee on Biological Diversity (NCBD). However, the
Malaysian CHM national node is yet to be established.

Thematic Focal Point for Biodiversity: The Malaysia Biodiversity Online
Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability among living organisms within ecological systems in which they occur; as well as the way they interact with each other in their environment. It has become a common practice to ellaborate biodiversity in terms of ecosystem, species and genes, corresponding to three fundamental and hierarchically-related levels of biological organisation.
Ecosystem diversity is often evaluated through measures of the diversity of the component species at local level in terms of vegetation. Species diversity are measured by species richness, which is the number of species in a site or habitat, and genetic diversity, on the other hand, represents the heritable variation within and between populations of organisms. To understand, appreciate and utilise biological diversity of any country, those three components would be obsolutely essential.
The idea for the Internet clearing house server was first mooted during the first meeting of the
Joint Technical Working Committee of the Malaysia-Japan Tropical Bioresources Project in
September 1996 at the NEDO Office in Tokyo. This inter-governmental initiative was funded by both governments to facilitate research cooperation between scientists in the Japanese as well as Malaysian universities and research institutions. This service is to serve as a model for project coordination, online reporting and data-sharing within the context of the project.
With the agreement of the JTWC, Dr Kamarudin Mat Salleh of UKM was entrusted to design, implement and maintain the server in UKM. The tailor-made server was purchase and built in
Matsuyama, Japan in November 1996. In April 1997, the server safely arrived and succesfully integrated into 155 mbps fiber optics-linked UKMnet local area network (LAN) and to the worldwide Internet through Malaysian JARING service.
The Malaysia Biodiversity Onine was later redesigned, tuned and existing biodiversity and bioinformatics databases were incorporated into the server. This initiative is highly succesfull and was selected as one of examplary models for diversity information. By late September 1997, the
G15 Gene Banks for Medicinal And Aromatic Plants organizing committee invited us to present our model for the symposium on the on “State of The Art Strategies and Technologies for
Conservation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants”. In early December 1997, the theme was presented to The Clearing House Mechanism working committee the represantatives of CHM
Asia in Kuala Lumpur. The latest recognition and the most prestigous endorsement for us came last July 1998 when the Board of the Flora Malesiana voted to host their services in the Malaysia
Biodiversity Online.The success of this server has also prompted The Japan Bioindustry
Association to identify us to lead a proposed 10 member Japanese-funded network for Asian biodiversity and biotechnology information network.
Important online databases currently available in the Malaysia Biodiversity Online server is being updated daily and new services will be added gradually. Currently, the server hosts Herbarium
UKMB Online, Plant Systematic Reference Database (PLASY), Ethnobotany of Malaysia, Native
Edible Plants of Sabah (NEP), Fraser’s Hill Flora Online and UKM’s Wildlife DNA Database.
The Online Collection of the Herbarium Mohd Kassim Rejab, Botany Department, UKM
(Herbarium UKMB)
The Herbarium UKMB was established as part of the teaching facility of the Faculty of Science in 1970. Its first home was a store-room about 20 m x 20 m at Jalan Ilmu, Petaling Jaya. As it grows the function has also changed from the merely teaching herbarium to a significant research facility within taxonomic community while maintaining its function as an important teaching unit of the Faculty (Latiff 1991)
The Herbarium currently holds one of the best collections of Malaysian plants especially those of
Annonaceae, Vitaceae, Violaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Rafflesiaceae, Simaroubaceae, Myrtaceae,
Dilleniaceae and Verbenaceae (seed plants), as well as most families of ferns, bryophytes and algal collections. The Herbarium collections were boosted with all collections from the former

Herbarium Jabatan Biologi UKM Sabah Campus (UKMS) which was closed down when the campus was closed in 1996.
Among the notable early collectors (1970's) who had contributed to the growth of the herbarium are the late Mohd Kassim Rejab, Willis Littke, Max van Dr. Soeriatmadja and Samad Abdullah.
The holdings were enriched by second generation collectors, from early 1980's, many of them still serving the Herbarium. These include Ahmed Zainudin Ibrahim, Razali Jaman, A. Rahim
Othman, Abdul Latiff Mohamad, David T. Jones, A. Aziz Bidin, Ahmad Daman Huri
Mohamad, Ahmad Ismail, Wahid Samsuddin, Laily Bin Din and. Kamarudin Mat Salleh. It was estimated that there are some 50,000 collections are in our Herbarium.
Computerisation effort was started in UKMB in the late 1980's for the main vascular plants collections. Basic database for current identification, collectors and their numbers, collection localities and dates was built and completed by 1993. In the same period similar effort was underway in Sabah for the Herbarium UKMS. These databases are being edited and merged.
Other collections (bryophytes and algae) are also currently being incorporated and it was hoped that the full collections will be duly completed soon.
Table 1. Sample listing from online query when the system was asked to provide standard checklist for collection from "Gua Musang"
UKMB Online
Adiantum latifolium Lam.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Track to K.Hau,
Gua Musang,terrestrial in semishad, R. Jaman 2008,
11.10.1985
Barringtonia macrostachya (Jack) Kurz.: PAHANG, K. Lipis, Kuala
Lipis-Gua Musang, A. Zainudin 2291, 25.11.1986
Diplazium asperum Blume.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, new Hiway Jeli to Gua Musang Kuala Lah terr, R. Jaman 2004, 11.10.1985
Eurya acuminata DC.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang 8 km to Kg
Betis, A. Zainudin 1941, 22.04.1985
Ficus annulata Bl.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang Gua Cha.
Sg. Neggeri, A. Latiff 1039, with A. Zainudin,
09.10.1985
Ficus chartacea Wall. ex King.: PAHANG, Pekan, Padang Tengku Gua
Musang Kg Ser, A. Latiff 2306, with A. Zainudin,
21.04.1987
Ficus fistulosa Reinw. ex Bl.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang km 231, A. Latiff 2310, with A. Zainudin, 21.04.1987
Ficus grossularioides Burm.f.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang
Jalan ke Kg How dari Kuala Betis, A. Latiff 1082, with
A. Zainudin, 12.10.1985
Ficus obpyramidata King.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang of
Sg. Kundur, A. Zainudin 1961, 24.04.1985
Ficus obpyramidata King.: KELANTAN, Gua Musang, Gua Musang Sg.
Neggeri Jeram Segalang, A. Latiff 1045, with A.
Zainudin, 10.10.1985

Table 2. Sample listing for current statistics from online database in Herbarium UKMB. Note at the end of the listing for the single collection families in our collection. Some of those are typos and could be easilycorrected.
UKMB online
Here are the latest statistics for Herbarium UKMB as on 26 March 1998
Total Species Online = 6806
Total Family Online = 266
Total Locality Online = 8753
Total Collector Online = 1235
Total Specimen Online = 27891
Detail Statistics For Families:
Family Total
Specimen
RUBIACEAE 1935
EUPHORBIACEAE 1623
FABACEAE 1275
ANNONACEAE 1023
MORACEAE 944
POACEAE 890
VITACEAE 818
MELASTOMATACEAE 791
MYRTACEAE 678
MYRSINACEAE 645
RUTACEAE 612
LAURACEAE 572
VERBENACEAE 556
ARECACEAE 544
CYPERACEAE 505
DIPTEROCARPACEAE 478
ASTERACEAE 424
CLUSIACEAE 354
APOCYNACEAE 334
ZINGIBERACEAE 324
ASPLENIACEAE 318
MELIACEAE 297
ORCHIDACEAE 282
SARGASSACEAE 276
ARACEAE 271
STERCULIACEAE 270
FAGACEAE 241
SAPOTACEAE 239
MALVACEAE 238
ADIANTACEAE 237
ACANTHACEAE 235
ROSACEAE 220
SAPINDACEAE 218
NEPENTHACEAE 213
ANACARDIACEAE 205
MYRISTICACEAE 201
ERICACEAE 201
ELAEOCARPACEAE 195
GESNERIACEAE 192
THEACEAE 190
TILIACEAE 177
FLACOURTIACEAE 174
POLYPODIACEAE 173
EBENACEAE 171
RHIZOPHORACEAE 170
BURSERACEAE 166
DILLENIACEAE 163
PIPERACEAE 162
RHAMNACEAE 152
URTICACEAE 144
CONVOLVULACEAE 134
LILIACEAE 133
ULMACEAE 132
ARALIACEAE 132
SOLANACEAE 131
GNETACEAE 128
POLYGALACEAE 122
DAVALLIACEAE 122
LABIATAE 120
DENNSTAEDTIACEAE 119
MENISPERMACEAE 118
LYCOPODIACEAE 115
CELASTRACEAE 110
SELAGINELLACEAE 109
ASCLEPIADACEAE 109
LOGANIACEAE 104
SIMAROUBACEAE 101
LECYTHIDACEAE 101
THELYPTERIDACEAE 99
LORANTHACEAE 97
OLACACEAE 93
CONNARACEAE 90
SYMPLOCACEAE 89
PANDANACEAE 86
COMMELINACEAE 79
VIOLACEAE 77
SMILACACEAE 74
GLEICHENIACEAE 71
BOMBACACEAE 71
BIGNONIACEAE 70
GRAMMITIDACEAE 69
COMBRETACEAE 69
SCROPHULARIACEAE 68
SAURAUIACEAE 68
CUCURBITACEAE 68
OLEACEAE 67
PODOCARPACEAE 66
DIOSCOREACEAE 61
LYTHRACEAE 60
SCHIZAEACEAE 59
OXALIDACEAE 59
OCHNACEAE 58
LINACEAE 58
BORAGINACEAE 58
AMARANTHACEAE 57
CAMPANULACEAE 56
POLYGONACEAE 55
AQUIFOLIACEAE 55
ARISTOLOCHIACEAE 54
HYMENOPHYLLACEAE 53
BLECHNACEAE 53
THYMELAEACEAE 52
Unknown 50
PASSIFLORACEAE 50
ICACINACEAE 50
FLAGELLARIACEAE 50
BEGONIACEAE 50
CYATHEACEAE 49
NYCTAGINACEAE 48
HYPOXIDACEAE 46
CAPPARIDACEAE 46
MARANTACEAE 41
OPILIACEAE 37
MAGNOLIACEAE 36
CASUARINACEAE 33
CHLORANTHACEAE 32
HAMAMELIDACEAE 30
SANTALACEAE 29
APIACEAE 29
BALSAMINACEAE 27
ILLICIACEAE 26
SAXIFRAGACEAE 24
PROTEACEAE 24
GOODENIACEAE 22
SONNERATIACEAE 20
OSMUNDACEAE 20
MUSACEAE 20

ANCISTROCLADACEAE 20
ONAGRACEAE 19
ERIOCAULACEAE 18
CAPRIFOLIACEAE 18
BRASSICACEAE 18
TACCACEAE 17
CUPRESSACEAE 17
STYRACACEAE 16
PITTOSPORACEAE 16
MARATTIACEAE 15
LENTIBULARIACEAE 15
DIPTERIDACEAE 15
ANISOPHYLLEACEAE 15
OPHIOGLOSSACEAE 14
ERYTHROXYLACEAE 14
ALANGIACEAE 14
RANUNCULACEAE 13
PINACEAE 13
MYRICACEAE 13
IRIDACEAE 13
CRYPTERONIACEAE 13
ACTINIDIACEAE 13
XYRIDACEAE 12
EQUISETACEAE 12
STEMONACEAE 11
CUNONIACEAE 11
BURMANNIACEAE 11
STAPHYLEACEAE 10
PLANTAGINACEAE 10
PEDALIACEAE 10
MALPIGHIACEAE 10
JUGLANDACEAE 10
CRASSULACEAE 10
ARAUCARIACEAE 10
VISCACEAE 9
MATONIACEAE 9
CYCADACEAE 9
CARYOPHYLLACEAE 9
TURNERACEAE 8
SCHISANDRACEAE 8
PENTAPHYLACACEAE 8
CANNACEAE 8
PARKERIACEAE 7
MONIMIACEAE 7
LAMIACEAE 7
HYDROCHARITACEAE 7
GENTIANACEAE 7
CLETHRACEAE 7
APOSTASIACEAE 7
WINTERACEAE 6
VERBANACEAE 6
PSILOTACEAE 6
PONTEDERIACEAE 6
MORINGACEAE 6
MARANTHACEAE 6
CORNACEAE 6
AMARYLLIDACEAE 6
SABIACEAE 5
RESTIONACEAE 5
PUNICACEAE 5
PORTULACACEAE 5
HERNANDIACEAE 5
CONIFERAE 5
CHENOPODIACEAE 5
CHEIROPLEURIACEAE 5
CARICACEAE 5
BIXACEAE 5
VALERIANACEAE 4
THYRSOPTERIDACEAE 4
PLUMBAGINACEAE 4
PLAGIOGYRIACEAE 4
NEPHROLEPIDACEAE 4
DROSERACEAE 4
CISTACEAE 4
CERATOPHYLLACEAE 4
BETULACEAE 4
BERBERIDACEAE 4
AIZOACEAE 4
ACTINIDACEAE 4
ACERACEAE 4
SALICACEAE 3
PRIMULACEAE 3
OXILADACEAE 3
JUNCACEAE 3
HYDROPHYLLACEAE 3
HALORAGACEAE 3
EPACRIDACEAE 3
ELAEAGNACEAE 3
DICHAPETALACEAE 3
DAPHNIPHYLLACEAE 3
BUTOMACEAE 3
TRIGONIACEAE 2
TOURNARACEAE 2
STACHYURACEAE 2
SCYPHOSTEGIACEAE 2
SARRACENIACEAE 2
PHILYDRACEAE 2
PAPAVERACEAE 2
OROBANCHACEAE 2
NYMPHAEACEAE 2
MONOTROPACEAE 2
GERANIACEAE 2
CELASTERACEAE 2
BASELLACEAE 2
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE 1
TYPHACEAE 1
TRIURIDACEAE 1
THEOPHRASTACEAE 1
STROMATOPTERIDACEAE 1
SCHIZEACEAE 1
PYROLACEAE 1
POTAMOGETONACEAE 1
POLTPODIACEAE 1
POLEMONIACEAE 1
PENTAPHYLAXCEAE 1
OPOLIACEAE 1
OPHIOLOSSACEAE 1
MARSILEACEAE 1
LYTHARACEAE 1
JUNGLANDACEAE 1
HYDRANGEACEAE 1
HANGUANACEAE 1
GYROSTEMONACEAE 1
GUNNERACEAE 1
EMPETRACEAE 1
DICKSONIACEAE 1
DIAPENSIACEAE 1
CHRYSOBALANACEAE 1
CEPHALOTAXACEAE 1
BUXACEAE 1
BALANOPHORACEAE 1
From the middle of 1997 these online databases were made available in the Internet in our server, making it possible for anybody to cross-check our collections for species checklists (ordered by families, localities or collectors), or specific listing for certain collections. This facility is also helpfull for herbarium management in which curators can occasionally query the databases for the collection statistics. Some example of the listings are presented in the Table 1 and 2.
Plant Systematic Reference Online (PLASY)

Publication and references are undoubtedly one of the important aspects in taxonomic and systematic researches. To facilitate the uses of these references in our research group, the collection was also made available online. Only journal reprints and some indexes from main taxonomic journals was gradually keyed-in and we hope to incorporate the books and other resources later. Users could query this databases using either authors, title or keywords interectively. There are more than 2200 entries are available in this database.
The Ethnobotany of Malaysian Plants Online
The forest of Malaysia is undoubtedly one of the richest rain forest in the world with diverse floristic composition and complex ecosystems. Of about 12,000 species of flowering plants believed to occur in Malaysia, about 1,200 (10%) species are believed to have medicinal properties, real or apparent. This is assumed on the basis that they have been used by the natives and the Malays for many generations in various ways in their traditional medical systems.
Over the last 30 years or so Malaysia experienced an extremely rapid socio-economic growth. The dependence on modern health care is becoming equally important as more chronic ailments and diseases are becoming apparent. As a consequence the country has lost much of its natural resources, including plant and animal species, through ecosystem destruction and degeneration.
Plant species were lost due to logging activities, opening of forested areas for resettlement and new townships, extensive cultivation of rubber, oil palm and cocoa, the building of roads and highways, and the impoundment of hydroelectricity dams, among others. The loss of pristine forest due to shifting cultivation by some nomadic ethnic, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, is also significant. The loss of medicinal plants is not excepted from these activities; thus their supply from the forest is becoming an important limiting factor. In any case, much of the present supply of medicinal plants come from kitchen gardens. The need to replenish their supply through largescale cultivation as well as conservation is becoming more important. Furthermore, in the last few years the buzzword biodiversity has emphasised the importance of conserving the diversity of plants for future generations to come, and this obviously includes medicinal and aromatic plants.
Therefore, in a way, the importance given to national biodiversity has indirectly benefited medicinal plants.
Among the earliest publications on Malayan medicinal plants is the 1886 work of Ismail Munshi which was translated by Gimlett & Burkill (1930). In 1894, H.N. Ridley described the use of several medicinal plants based on written notes on the specimens in the Singapore Herbarium.
This was later followed with papers by Thomson (1907) and later by Burkill & Haniff (1930).
Several years later, I.H. Burkill, then the Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens published his monumental Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. This widely used twovolumes dictionary listed all known species from Peninsular Malaysia with notes on their uses, local names and other botanical aspects. Published by then the London office of the Crown
Agent for the Colonies in 1935, it was later reprinted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in 1966. Burkill's dictionary had given us a tremendous contribution and had not been surpassed by any other publication. It has since been the de facto reference for about 1200 species of medicinal and poisonous plants of the Malay Peninsula.
From 1960's until late 1970's, there is no significant addition to our ethnobotanical knowledge were reported. With the establishment of Botany departments in newly established local universities in the 1970's, many significant new initiatives were introduced and several detail works on either specific families or studies on various ethnic groups were published (Table 2).
In Sabah, several significant contributions (Table 3) were made by students of the former
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Sabah Campus (Kota Kinabalu) such as Guntavid (1983) on medicinal plants and Yasili (1984) on poisonous plants. These were later followed by various

surveys by Latiff and his team under Sabah Ethnography project funded by Yayasan Sabah (Latiff
1985).
Table 2. Recent contributions to the Ethnobotany of Peninsular Malaysian plants
Ethnic Group Contributions
Taylor & Wong, 1987
Osman, 1991
Among the earliest ethnobotanical accounts for Sarawak were published by Steenis (1958), listing several species of magic plants used by local "dayak". This were followed by several accounts by Paul Chai and his team (Table 4).
Although a lot of new data were generated since the publication of Burkill's Dictionary, there has been no effort to published an updated version of this classical reference. Many species cited by him have been revised and no longer in use, creating confusion and incorrect usage in many publications related to the traditional medicines, aromatiand poisonous plants. Several earlier initiatives in development of local medicinal and poisonous plant information systems were introduced. These includes the Integrated Drug and Poison Information Service (IDPIS) and the
Asia Pacific Information Network on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (APINMAP).
Table 3. Some recent contributions to the ethnobotany of Sabah
Ethnic Group Contributions
Orang Sungai Ajik, 1990
Ghazally et al, 1989 Idahan
Orang Hulu
Jah Het

Table 4. Recent contributions to the ethnobotany of Sarawak
Ethnic Group Contributions
General Chai, 1975, 1978
Developed since 1982, The IDPIS project was initiated by the USM's School of Pharmacy and became part of the National Poison Centre (in USM) in which data on mainly poisonous and medicinal plants were computerised and available online via TELITA, the Malaysian national videotext service. A plant information modules in IDPIS provides scientific names, traditional names, part used and how to use, origin, chemical compositions, toxicity data, traditional usage, product information, manufacture and address and scientific reference (Razak et al, 1995).
In response to request by the interested Member States, the United Nations Education Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formally launched the Asian Pasific Information
Network on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (APINMAP) in July 1987. To date, it has 14 participating countries, namely: Australia, People's Republic ofChina, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Turkey and Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
APINMAP is a specialized information network operating within the framework of UNESCOsupported Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Experiences in Science and
Technology in Asia and the Pacific (ASTINFO). APINMAP acquires its strength from the information activities of the national nodes of each participating country. The national nodes are responsible for data input and the provision of information services at the country level. Malaysia became the 13th member country of APINMAP in early 1990 although the activities of
APINMAP have been well known among scientists working in medicinal and aromatic plantt and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaya was chosen as a National Node for Malaysia. However, The
APINMAP uses proprietary DBMS, providing bibliographic database and referral databases of information sources, research institutions and experts. The databases are not currently available online.
The Ethnobotany of Malaysian Plants Database project was initiated as a continuation of our effort to develop a comprehensive database for Malaysian (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and
Sarawak) medicinal, poisonous and aromatic plants. Plants of cultural and historical importance, such as plants used as place names, would also be incorporated. Sponsored under the
Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) of the 7 th
Malaysia Plan (RM7), a prototype of the computerised database of Malaysian medicinal and aromatic plants database was developed. These databases were ready in the middle of 1997 and have been made available online in our server since then.
The Ethnobotany of Malaysian Plant homepage currently hosts nearly 16,000 native plant names from about 4600 species. This databasea are being updated with new informations almost daily.
The ultimate aim of our project is to produce a new Dictionary of Economic Products covering all our ethnobotanical knowledge of our people in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak

Native Edible Plant of Sabah (NEP)
The NEP project was started in the late 1980's in the then Herbarium Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia Sabah Campus (UKMS) to prepare an inventory and document the collection of wild edible plants of Sabah. Funded by a small grant from IRPA RM5, the databases were completed as a prototype in 1990. Some 12,000 specimens representing 832 species of known edible plants of Sabah were compiled. This databases is now available online in our server.
Fraser's Hill Flora Project
Located at 3 q 40. 6’ to 3 q 40. 0’ N and 101 q 42. 0’ to 101 q 47.0’ E around Pahang and
Selangor border, the forests of historic Fraser's Hill (1000 to 1200 m altitude) represent one of the most fragile ecosystems in Peninsular Malaysia. Like many other highlands in Malaysia, this cool and wet area (3,230 mm rains and 20-24 q C temperature) is fast developed to cater ever increasing demands for tourism industry.
According to Kiew (1992), Fraser's Hill flora is diverse and rich with at least 836 spesies of seed plants, 32% of which are endemics and at least 230 spesies are under threat and a good candidate for extinction list. The most famous endemic species in this area is a Trig-0ak Trigonobalanus
verticellata (Fagaceae). The genus Trigonobalanus is very interesting taxonomically and ecologically because it is a disjunct genus, only found in Asia and South America. It also is thought to be the connecting link bertween the genera in the Northern hemisphere with those in the Southern hemisphere, especially Nothofagus.
Preliminary ecological investigation of the species was carried out by Lo (1998) and had just been completed and their distribution in Fraser's Hill is now available. With the earlier plot studies by
Petol (1993) and on-going montane flora analysis being carried out by my graduate student, Mr
Balu Perumal, we are able to provide basic floristic composition of the area, in the server. This is made possible from data provided by Perumal and earlier studies.
Species Plantarum Palaeotropicum
Sponsored By Malaysian MPKSN Through IRPA Project No. 08-02-02-009, Species Plantarum
Palaeotropicum Intranet project was initiated to facilitate powerful search and listing facilities for all plant species published in the old-world's tropics, especially in in the Malesian region. It is intended for in-house use within our research groups especially for taxonomits working under
"Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak" project.
The server currently listed all species known from the old world's tropics, valid or not, as far as it was fully described for the 44 families listed in the table below.
UKM Wildlife DNA Bank
Great concern for the loss of natural habitats owing to the rapid pace of development, and the potentially negative impacts of such. habitat loss on the wildlife of Malaysia, has led UKM to establish a DNA Bank for all Malaysian wildlife on September, 1993. The starting fund was provided by the Faculty of Life Sciences ,UKM (RM 10,000.00) and Caltex Malaysia, through its
Caltex Wildlife Conservation Fund (RM 12,000.00). A DNA Bank Advisory Panel consisting of
6 members from the Departments of Biochemistry, Genetics, Nuclear Science And Zoology, and headed by Prof. Dr. Mohd. Noor Embi, was initiated in July, 1993.

Table 5. Families of flowering plants currently available in the clearing house server of Malaysia
Biodiversity online for the Species Plantarum Paleotropicum project.
1. ACANTHACEAE 23. ANACARDIACEAE
2. ACANTHACEAE
3. ACANTHOCHLAMYDAC
4. ACERACEAE
5. ACHARIACEAE
6. ACHATOCARPACEAE
7. ACTINIDIACEAE
8. ADOXACEAE
9. AGAVACEAE
24. ANCISTROCLADACE
25. ANISOPHYLLEACEA
26. ANNONACEAE
27. ANTHERICACEAE
28. APOCYNACEAE
29. APONOGETONACEAE
30. AQUIFOLIACEAE
31. ARACEAE
10. AIZOACEAE
11. AKANIACEAE
12. ALANGIACEAE
13. ALISMATACEAE
14. ALLIACEAE
15. ALOACEAE
16. ALSEUOSMIACEAE
17. ALSTROEMERIACEA
32. ARALIACEAE
33. ARALIDIACEAE
34. ARAUCARIACEAE
35. ARISTOLOCHIACEA
36. ASCLEPIADACEAE
37. ASPARAGACEAE
38. ASPHODELACEAE
39. ASTELIACEAE
18. ALTINGIACEAE
19. ALZATEACEAE
20. AMARANTHACEAE
21. AMARYLLIDACEAE
22. AMPELIDACEAE
40. ASTEROPEIACEAE
41. AUCUBACEAE
42. AVERRHOACEAE
43. AVICENNIACEAE
44. DIPTEROCARPACEAE
Representatives from the following Agencies were invited to the inaugural meeting of the Panel: x
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, Malaysia. x
Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN), Malaysia. x
The Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development, Sabah. x
Forestry Department, Sarawak x
National Museum, Malaysia. x
National Zoo, Malaysia. x
Columbia University, New York.
The primary purpose of the bank will be to collect, catalogue and preserve, and eventually to isolate and analyse mtDNA, rDNA and genomic DNA, from various wildlife species of the country. It is hoped that the Bank will serve as a priceless resource for research and development in wildlife conservation, especially for those species that are threatened and endangered, not only with local Institutions, but also with those outside Malaysia. So far, the Bank has been involved in several collaborative projects with Columbia University, New
York. It is envisaged that rapid advances in DNA research might one day enable researchers to isolate useful gene sequences for biotechnology research in agriculture and medicine.
The server currently hosted two online databases, the inventory of collected tissue samples and the inventory of extracted DNA
Email Forwarding and Listserver's Services
The Malaysia Biodiversity Online server has also been building up reputation as a regional biodiversity e-mail forwarding and Listserver's services provider. In this respect, it acts as an electronic e-mail server (herbarium.ukm.my) forwarding re-router and Internet Listserver subscription hub.

There are 8 professional Listserver's groups currently hosted by The Malaysia Biodiversity Online server as listed in the Table yyy.
Table yyy. Professional discussion groups hosted by the Malaysia Biodiversity Online server
Group Description isitfsh IT for Life Sciences berita Berita Semasa Sains & Teknologi floramalesiana Flora Malesiana Network Discussion Group psm pasoh
Plant Systematics Malesia 2000
NSF Pasoh Biodiversity Program malbiodnet Malaysian Biodiversity Conservation Network expd lestari
List for Pakdin Former Student
Institut Alam Sekitar & Pembagunan UKM
75
140
67
26
8
49
13
11

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks to Organizing Committee for inviting us to present our contribution and to
MPKSN Malaysia for their financial support for this project (IRPA 09-02-02-013, IRPA 08-02-
02-022 & IRPA 08-02-02-009) and to NEDO and JBA for assistance during coordinating trip to
Japan
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