Background : “Manose” Health and Beauty Research Center
At present, the world has intense economic competition. ASEAN’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. The global economy has been estimated at $63 million over the past few years. On average every year, it is found that the economy is growing around 4-5% per year. Over the past 10 years, especially in 2009, it was the year of the global economic downturn. Based on information from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on April 28, 2021, the economies of the developing Asian countries are expected to return to better growth of 7.3 percent in 2022. This region is projected to grow moderately at 5.3 percent in 2022 due to global health revitalization and the advances in coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination, recovering from negative growth at 0.2 percent last year. The Asian Economic Trends Analysis Report for the year 2021 (Asian Development Outlook 2021) has also reported that excluding Hong Kong, China, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, the economies of the developing Asian countries are projected to grow at 7.7 percent in 2021 and 5.6 percent in 2022.
For the ASEAN region, the economy in this region is a very small proportion compared to the global economy. It accounts for about 3% of the world economy, because ASEAN has about 10% of the world’s population. Therefore, it reflects that the economy in the ASEAN region can still grow a lot. Moreover, the production cost of the ASEAN region is still low. Also, ASEAN has a free trade area with the world and another important thing is that there is an ASEAN plus eight or plus nine, meaning that it has an FTA (Free Trade Area) with 80% of the world’s economic powers. Then, in addition to the low cost of the products from ASEAN, the ASEAN products can also be exported to the world without tax. Therefore, ASEAN is one of the most growing economies in the world. This will be a good opportunity for Thai economy to start new businesses as well.
It can be seen that Thailand, one of the 10 countries in the ASEAN region, has the potential to become a medical center for health and beauty in this region and the world, because in the past, Thailand has the highest growth in healthcare business. This can be seen from the increasing number of foreigners visiting Thailand for medical treatment of almost two million per year. This is more than the number of patients treated in Singapore combined with India. In 2022, Newsweek magazine ranked Thailand as one of the countries having the best hospitals in the 150 countries of the world and the biggest hospital in ASEAN. Thailand is the center of health in Asia with 400 private hospitals, modern equipments and skilled medical personnels that have made the medical care of Thailand grow rapidly, with an average of 5.7% per year. Most people in the ASEAN region come to Thailand for medical treatment without the need to travel to the United States or Europe as before. Thailand has technology in medical treatment which is equivalent to the global standards, while the medical expenses are many times lower than in the west, and having better service quality. As a result, health and beauty businesses, which are part of medicine and pharmaceuticals in Thailand, have also grown. Therefore, Thailand needs to focus on the research and development of science and technology in medicine and pharmaceuticals, especially those related to health and beauty. Thailand can also rely on the strengths and advantages of natural products, herbs and wisdom that can make Thailand the leader in this field in the ASEAN region and at the world level as well.
Nowadays, business is not just about trading. but relying on technology to increase the chances of competition. The development of the current global economy depends mainly on technology. Technology is derived from research and development or R&D (Research and Development). If Thailand can adapt itself to be a research and development center, it will enable Thailand to produce new products and services with high quality and low cost. This will enable Thailand to expand and grow its economy more than any other country. Research and development is therefore extremely important. The measure of economic growth must be based on the budget used in R&D. In terms of gross domestic product, also known as GDP (Gross Domestic Product), Israel is the world’s No. 1 country that spends the most on R&D, with 4.8% of GDP, followed by Sweden, Finland, Japan and Korea, accounting for more than 3%, and followed by the United States, Germany, Singapore and France. which accounts for more than 2% of GDP. For Thailand, it is at 0.2% of GDP. However, the Thai government has a policy to try to increase the R&D budget to 1% of GDP. This will result in Thailand being able to invent new products and services. The direction of R&D in Thailand should focus on the production of products from herbs and agricultural crops, which is the advantages of Thailand as well as of other countries in the ASEAN region. But, various technologies must be applied in order to increase the efficiency and safety of the products such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, etc.
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Jiradej Manosroi and Prof. Emeritus Dr. Aranya Manosroi, the executive administrators of Manose Health and Beauty Research Center, are retired professors from Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University since 2012. They have been working in research and producing graduates at the Bachelor’s degree level, the Master’s and Doctoral degrees of more than 3,000 with more than 30 graduates holding doctoral degrees in Pharmacy. The two professors have more than 40 years of continuous experience in the field of medical and pharmaceutical sciences on health and beauty of pharmaceutical products, food supplements, cosmetics and natural products from wisdom and recipes of various Thai herbal medicines. They have more than 25 research works that have been patented in Thailand and internationally. They have more than 400 research papers published in national and international academic journals. They have isolated compounds from more than 30 medicinal plants, with more than 5 new biologically active substances. Many new developed assay methods have also been developed by them. Their research works have got numerous national and international awards.
From 1993 to at present, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Jiradej Manosroi and his team have developed the Thai Medicinal Plant Recipe Database from “Manosroi I” to “Manosroi III”. They have collected the herbal medicinal recipes from all regions of Thailand. There are more than 90,545 herbal medicinal textbooks that have been validated and recorded in the Database (data as of January 1, 2022). When the compilation is complete, It is estimated to have more than 300,000 herbal recipes in this database. This database will be extremely useful in research and development of medicinal products, food supplements and cosmetics. This is because these medicinal recipes are based on the wisdom that has been tested for real treatment in humans for many generations, which is comparable to the clinical trial according to the modern drug development methods. Only the effective medicinal recipes are recorded in the textbooks and used over and over again. In addition, this database is another way to conserve the folklore wisdom of Thai herbal medicines. Currently, it is in the process of developing the “Manosroi IV” Database which will be a more modern and easy-to-use database covering more than 300,000 herbal medicinal recipes throughout Thailand, and can be accessed by the public.
In 2015, Thailand entered the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which resulted in free trade and investment in the Southeast Asian countries (comprising of 10 countries which are Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar. Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia). The trend of health care and beauty of people around the world today has begun to turn to use more natural products. Thailand, like many countries in the ASEAN region, has the advantage of abundant biodiversity, traditional knowledge and wisdom. Only some Thai herbs have been studied, researched and developed to products by the government agencies, private or university. This is not enough to meet the needs of consumers who want to use the effective and safe natural products. There is problem that Thailand has not been able to develop sufficient herbs and natural products from wisdom to be the effective, safe, being practical to be used and commercializable products. This may be due to the lack of knowledge, budget, continuous support policies from both public and private sectors, the support from both government and private agencies in providing research and development services, including quality inspection and analysis of herbal products for health and beauty to respond to the needs of both consumers and entrepreneurs.
From the experience of research and development of natural products for more than 40 years, and the collecting and preparing continuously the information for the “Manosroi” Database for more than 30 years, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Jiradej Manosroi and Prof. Emeritus Dr. Aranya Manosroi have realized the importance and necessity of the aforementioned problems. Therefore, when retired from Chiang Mai University, the two professors jointly established the Manose Health and Beauty Research Center which is the first private research center in the northern region of Thailand that operates to respond to the needs of consumers and entrepreneurs. It has officially opened for business since January 13, 2014 in Chiang Mai. At present, the research center has 12 highly knowledgeable and experienced personnel and has the laboratory that meets the international standards, with the vision “An International Leader in Research and Development of Natural Products”. This research center has the mission to help and support both the entrepreneurs and consumers by providing services at a reasonable price that will bring the knowledge of Thai herbs and Thai wisdom to research and develop with science, technology and innovation to become concrete as products including medicines, dietary supplements and cosmetics. These products will be safe and has high commercial potential to be able to compete in both Thai and international markets. Our “Manose” Health and Beauty Research Center expects to add value to Thai herbs, knowledge from Thai wisdom and natural products that can help the Thai economy to grow sustainably from domestic resources which can compete economically with other countries in the region and the world.
Vision
An international leader in research and development of natural products
Manose Health and Beauty Research Center, Chiang Mai, Thailand