The demand for herbs in the production of traditional medicines is ever increasing.  In Malaysia, the value of herbal related products is more than RM 4.5 billion a year. At present, less than 10% the raw materials used in the production of traditional medicines are cultivated locally.  The rest are either imported from overseas or collected from the wild. 

Over-dependence on imported raw materials will expose the local industry to inconsistent supply, price instability and adulteration with low quality materials.  This will hamper the growth of the Malaysian herbal industry, and will also result in the outflow of foreign exchange.  The practice of collecting herbs from the wild for the commercial production of traditional medicines will at some stage in the future endanger the existence of these species. The only way to prevent the growing demand for these herbal medicines from endangering herb species is to plant these herbs commercially.  

Thus the main thrust of the herbal research at MARDI is to develop the production technology for commercial production.  Besides the crop production technology, the priority is also given to phytochemical research, toxicology and development of food and non-food (nutraceutical and pharmaceutical) based herbal products.
R&D activities in herbs are focused on four major thrust areas that are:

• Development of new  herbal varieties with emphasis on quality, high yield and pest resistance


• Development of cost-effective, sustainable and environment-friendly production system with emphasis on optimum input utilization


• Management of key pests and diseases


• Development of efficient post-harvest handling technologies and product development