2024 Volume 78 Issue 1 Pages 56-63
My history in field investigations in Asia and pharmacognosy research on natural resources obtained is being introduced to encourage promoting collaboration and benefit sharing between Japan and other countries. In my first overseas expedition to explore traditional medicines and medicinal resources in the Nepalese Himalayas as a graduate student, I learned from my professor, Dr. Tsuneo Namba, how to prepare plant specimens, to conduct interviews on medicinal plants with traditional Tibetan physicians, and to return the scientific results to a community. As an assistant- and associate-professor, my field investigations in China followed by studies on authentication and quality evaluation of Chinese crude drugs were performed with support of the international network comprising Dr. Namba’s former students. When I led a laboratory, our primary goal was to develop a strategy for the sustainable use of crude drug resources. Thus, we conducted analyses on the genetic and chemical diversity of medicinal plants. These plants were collected during a field survey in Asia. Before such collaborative studies, international cooperative research activities of both our university and institute, and cooperation agreements with foreign institutions were necessary. Recently, our project in Mongolia needed to establish mutually agreed terms with a Mongolian researcher and to obtain prior informed consent.
