Short stint in NYP spurs further collaboration

At NYP (from left): Le, Dr Subramaniam, Dr Lee, Dr Lim and Prof Dr Loh

A five-day research work of two partners, UTAR and Eu Yan Sang International Limited, at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Singapore from 10 to 14 June 2013 led to UTAR and NYP working towards collaboration in future research projects.

UTAR and Eu Yan Sang group has long been research partners.  The UTAR-EYS team's short-term working visit to NYP was initiated by UTAR adjunct professor and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Eu Yan Sang International Limited Prof Dr Patrick HM Loh, who is also a member of Life Sciences Advisory Committee of NYP School of Chemical and Life Sciences.

Prof Loh, head of postgraduate programmes of UTAR Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Chairperson of UTAR Centre for Cancer Research Dr Lim Yang Mooi and her research assistant Le Tian Xin were the members of UTAR-EYS team involved in the short stint in NYP.

Prior to the visit to NYP, the team had successfully extracted borneol from a local plant in Malaysia.  Borneol, which is easily oxidised to form camphor, was once called Borneo camphor from which the present name was derived.  It is used in traditional Chinese medicine. 

The objectives of the team's work in NYP were to identify the type of borneol isomer they had isolated and compared it to that of the standard borneol, and to upscale or further purify their partially pure borneol extract through fractional distillation using NYP's advanced facilities.  With full support from NYP School of Chemical and Life Sciences Director Dr Joel Lee who provided them the full access to the facilities available and NYP's plant chemistry expert Dr Subramaniam Gurusamy who had offered them valuable advice, the team was able to accomplish these objectives.

While at NYP, the UTAR staff scoured the facilities available and exchanged ideas with researchers in the School of Chemical and Life Sciences.  It was agreed that UTAR and NYP would work towards collaboration in future research projects.