SABAK BERNAM: After tongkat ali and kacip fatimah, it is mas cotek that is making a name for itself.
Commercially grown on a five-hectare plot in Sungai Air Tawar, it is processed and sold as tea in sachets and capsules.
Managing director for Delto Madicamo Plantation Sdn Bhd, Nasnan Jajuli, 37, who is behind the project, said he came across the herb when he was working in Africa.
"I contracted malaria when I was working in a poultry farm in Guinea in 2000. My African friends advised me to take a local herb called kang kali bang. After taking it for a week, I was cured.
"One of my friends, who was from Johor, also contracted the disease and was hospitalised, but died two weeks later.
"It was then I realised the potential of the herb and brought some back to Malaysia," he said during a recent visit to his farm by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Nasnan said with the help of some friends from Universiti Putra Malaysia, he conducted research on the plant.
He discovered that the shrub was also growing in the wild in Terengganu, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak and was locally called mas cotek.
In 2001, he began commercially growing the herb, known by its scientific name Ficus deltoidea.
He said the herb has many health benefits.
"I realise that it has a huge potential to be big internationally. We have started exporting it to Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates and China. We are also looking at other new markets.
"We have received orders for the product from Nigeria and Benin," he said.
He admitted that more research was needed to identify the properties of the herb so that it could get international recognition.
He said he was willing to work with the government and the private sector to enhance the product with modern technology.
