The 13-day trip to Manila and two Philippine provinces, according to NMC-CREES agriculturist Isidoro T. Cabrera, was funded by a grant awarded by Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cabrera said they identified herbal medicines in the Philippines that can be grown in the CNMI and used for livestock health care.
They visited the Los Banos Botanical Garden in Laguna province, south of Manila, where they saw how medicinal plants are grown; the International Rice Research Institute, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the University of the Philippines in Los Banos and Manila, and the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Healthcare.
Although the herbal medicines presented to them were mostly for humans, and their livestock application is still in the experimental stage, Cabrera said they met people who use herbal medicines for farm animals.
NMC-CREES plant pathologist Dilip Nandwani studied last year the traditional medicines in the CNMI.
The visit to the Philippines, he said, gave him the chance to study more herbal plants.
Nandwani said some herbs presented to them in the Philippines are also found in the CNMI but not commonly used as medicine.
Cabrera said they attended lectures on current researches related to medicinal plants and the process of regulating them.
They also toured facilities that produce herbal medicines.
The other officials and staff who traveled with Cabrera and Nandwani were NMC-CREES director Ross Manglona, research coordinator Alan Sabaldica, NMC-CREES Tinian agent Lawrence Duponcheel, NMC-CREES Rota agent Manases Barcinas, farmer Joaquin Deleon Guerrero and eighth staffers of the Tinian Mayor’s Office.
