UPM Vice Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture – ‘The effects of ginger from farm to lab: A journey exploring pain therapy'

Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman in his lab, Universiti Putra Malaysia.

SERDANG, August 26 – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman will be talking about his research findings during his Inaugural Lecture titled ‘The Effects of Ginger, From Farm to Lab: A journey exploring pain therapies’ tomorrow, 27th August 2021 (Friday) at 9.30am via Facebook live streaming.

The links are : 

http://www.facebook.com/fpskupmofficial and

http://www.facebook.com/UniPutraMalaysia

Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan hoped the systematic approach to uncover traditional knowledge, then to scientifically investigate the potential benefits of ginger will facilitate evidence-based medicine in the near future.

“UPM welcomes collaboration from practitioners, industries and the community in this process,” he said.

Complementary and alternative medicines have played an important role in shaping today’s health and healing of the population. In this region, our practices are enriched with the convergence of knowledge from people of diverse cultures.

“If we take a closer look, many of these therapies, involve using herbs and natural products. We have seen these traditional practices being passed on from one generation to the other. It is important that the knowledge is well-documented and gradually be put to test scientifically to elucidate the claims in helping or treating diseases,” he said.

He added, these have led to the emergence of the field of drug discovery using natural products focussing on the process of identifying active compounds, especially from plants. As an outcome, in recent years, the number of scientific publications reporting the effects of  natural products on various diseases, including for the management of pain have seen a steady increase.

“In our laboratory the focus remains on the exploration of these potentials on the investigation, management, and treatment of acute and chronic pain. In general, the drugs used for the management of pain can be classified as opioids or non-opioids, pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments. Each of these modalities present their individual challenges and side effects.

“Pain signaling in our body is a complex process as it involves numerous neurochemicals and different neuronal pathways. Most times, a single type of treatment will not provide optimal pain relief. Hence a combination of treatment approaches must be further explored,” he added.

Over the years, Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan have studied different species of ginger and published these results. Studies have shown that ginger and its different derivatives possess promising health benefits including pain relief properties.

“Using experimental models in the laboratory, we have shown that ginger in general has the ability to reduce pain by reducing inflammation and when investigating the mechanisms of action of ginger, we found it to interact with similar physiological receptors like other analgesics.

“We have also seen during the course of our studies that ginger has other health benefits including reducing oxidative stress as an antioxidant and helps with hyperlipidemia,” he said. - DagangNews.com