The Blog of Dato' Dr Anuar Md Nor

Introduction

There are more than twenty four species of swift distributed around the world, but only a few species that produce nests that are deemed edible.  The majority of edible bird’s nests consumed worldwide come from two species, namely Aerodramus fuciphogus and Aerodramus maximus . They can be found in areas covering Nicobar Islands, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Borneo and Palawan Island in Philippines.

Malaysia is estimated to produce about 350 MT of edible bird’s nest annually, and is mainly harvested in specially-designed bird houses which scatter throughout the country. The price of edible bird’s nest has been influenced by many documentaries  in media channels such as National Geography showing harvesters, hanging high in caves in Thailand and Borneo, to harvest edible bird’s nest in caves. The harvesting of edible bird’s nest is dangerous, thus the justification of its price. A kilogram of edible bird’s nest  in soap or consumed as sweet dessert with rock sugar will set diners back by about RM10,000 in high-end Chinese restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore. The burgeoning economy in China had also spurred a high demand for edible bird’s nest which is given as a gift to cement business deals.

Bioactive Peptides from Edible Bird’s Nest

Edible bird’s nest is the nest of the swift that is formed from its coagulated saliva. In the nest, a pair of swift would raise a chick. The harvester would wait until  the chick could fly before harvesting the edible bird’s nest. In effect, the harvester is providing a safe place for the swift to raise its young.  Thus, the harvesting of edible bird nest is less harmful than the production of the more expensive food, i.e., caviar. In order to harvest caviar, the fish, sturgeon,  had to be killed to extract the roes, which is caviar.

Studies by researchers at Malaysian universities have discovered key bioactive peptides from enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins of edible bird’s nest. The primary purpose of protein consumption is to provide essential amino acids, which are used by the body to synthesize various structural proteins required for homeostasis maintenance. However, the increasing popularity of functional foods and nutraceuticals has led scientists to seek protein-derived peptides that could prevent or even treat metabolic disorders.

The ability of these peptides to influence biological reactions and physiological conditions is what makes them “bioactive”. A bioactive peptide consists of a certain number of amino acids (2-20) that are usually encrypted within the linear protein chain and remain inactive until released by digestion. Thus, it follows that appropriate gastrointestinal tract (GIT) digestion conditions, food proteins could yield bioactive peptides. Peptide absorption from the GIT is then facilitated by specific or non-specific transporters, cellular endocytosis  and simple translocation (passive diffusion) into the blood circulatory system. However, the level of such bioactive peptide release during food digestion is considered very low and of little consequence to human health.

Therefore the most useful approach involves customized in-vitro protein digestion with human or proteases in order to enhance bioactive peptide production. Upon completion of the enzymatic hydrolysis, the digest is centrifuged and the soluble portion is isolated as the protein hydrolysate while the undigested portion is discarded. High peptide solubility increases absorption potential during oral consumption.

A research group at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, led by Professor Dr Abdul Salam Babji, had tested the desirable activity of bioactive peptides from edible bird’s nest. They include antihypertensive and antioxidant.

Apart from the demonstrated health benefits, one of the main attractions of food protein- derived peptides is the low risk of negative side effects that are normally associated with drug therapy. Therefore, even though peptides are less active on a weight basis, they can be used as preventive or therapeutic agents as relatively higher doses than possible with drugs. The relative safety of food protein-derived peptides may be attributed to faster clearance from the blood circulatory system since they susceptible to peptidase-dependent degradation. Moreover, unlike drugs, peptides are not stored “as is” in tissues but are rather used for the biosynthesis of new protein within the body. Unlike drugs, peptides do not require liver detoxification and are not excreted in the urine; therefore, potential damages to these organs are minimized during peptide therapy, even at high doses.

Bioactive peptides from edible bird nest have better bioavailability to be absorbed in the GIT  as compared to the protein contained in the traditional edible bird’s nest soup. Traditional edible bird’s nest soup consumed together with its bioactive peptides should give better “value” to diners who pay for this expensive coagulated sliver of a swift.

We recently enjoyed a bowl of edible bird’s nest with the edible bird’s nest peptides. It was delicious!!

Background

In the early phase of the rubber industry in early 1900s, investors and speculators floated companies, which owned rubber estates or rubber lands in Malaya, on the London Stock Exchange. Their estates in major states like Selangor and Negri Sembilan had English-sounding names. Some of the English-sounding names included:

1. Aranlife
2. Balgownie
3. Beaumont
4. Blackwater
5. Braemer
6. Broome
7. Brown Comet
8. Caledonian
9. Carey Island
10. Castlefield
11. Coalfields
12. Cullerlie
13. Colwall
14. Devon
15. Didsbury
16. Easrnor
17. Ebor
18. Edinburgh
19. Effingham
20. Emerald
21. Galloway
22. Glenmarie
23. Golconda
24. Golden Hope
25. Haron
26. Harfenden
27. Hawthornden
28. Haytor
29. Highland & Lowlands
30. Holmwood
31. Inch Kenneth
32. Kent
33. Killinghall
34. Lambourne
35. Ledbury
36. Lunderston
37. Madingley
38. Merton
39. Midlands
40. Monmouth
41. New Amherst
42. Newbury
43. North hammock
44. Paradise
45. Pilmoor
46. Reading
47. St Andrew’s
48. Seafield
49. Seaport
50. Sedgeley
51. Shelford
52. Sione
53. Strathmore
54. Strathnairlie
55. Tremelbye
56. Vallambrosa
57. Wardieburn
58. Waterfall
59. West Country

We remember many of names existed until in the 1970s, while other estates were absorbed by larger companies. With a shipping travel time of about 40 days between London and Singapore in early 1900s, the owners of the rubber estates in London would need local companies or local managers to oversee their rubber estates in Malaya.

Enter the Agency Houses

The early rubber planters used the fund, raised through the flotation of public companies on the London Stock Exchange, to develop their rubber estates. However, the costs involved in opening up new rubber plantation on a scale dictated by demand lay well beyond the means of almost all rubber planters. In addition, the rubber planters had to wait for at least five years before the rubber trees could be tapped for latex.

Those early rubber planters had to seek capital from other sources, namely the established merchant houses based in Singapore and Penang, which have been operating since 1800s. The established merchant houses had the right contacts on the local and overseas financial market. It also involved experiences of business organizations and management techniques, of which most planters were woefully lacking, and the know-how for shipping and marketing rubber on the London market.

The big merchant houses which started in early 1800s, eventually dominated the rubber industry which came to be known as agency houses. By the end of the second decade of twentieth century, the agency houses had established itself in a dominating position in the rubber plantation industry and later in the oil palm industry.  However, it took a generation to consolidate their position. During this period, the early rubber planters made it to the boardroom of rubber companies which were listed on the London Stock Exchange and the rubber speculators from the City of London itself died off and were replaced by the nominees of the agency houses.

The major agency houses that existed in 1960s included the following:

Source: Zorn Leigh Hunt, Manual of Rubber Planting Companies, 1960, and Strait Times Directory, 1962. Quoted in Fryer (1964)

There were several differences between the pattern of interests of the two largest agency houses, Harrison Crosfield and Guthrie. The first was by far the larger. Guthrie, however, appeared a much more specialized organization: it controlled relatively few companies and fewer estates than smaller rivals. The properties under its management, however, were of very large size, including both the largest rubber and oil palm estate in Malaysia. Guthrie had also a leading position in the cultivation of oil palm.

By the 1980s, the agency houses were bought over by Malaysian interests Several names such as   Sime Darby, East Asiatic and Boustead  are still operating under the new Malaysian owners until today.

As a business historian, we appreciate and value the contribution of individuals who managed these agency houses and created a plantation industry from the jungles of Malaya in the early 1900s.

Our thanks to Mr. Lampard, Mr. T. Barlow, Mr. Boustead Brothers, Sir John Hay, Mr. Money, Sir J. Anderson and others.

Reference:

1996. J. M. Tate. The RGA History of the Plantation Industry in the Peninsular Malaysia. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1996.

Introduction

Legend had it that four seed s of African Elaeis guineensis  brought over by the Dutch into Indonesia in 1848 and planted in Bogor, Indonesia, laid the foundation for the palm industry in Malaysia and Indonesia. The two countries now produce more than eighty per cent of palm oil in the world.

The earliest record of four seedlings showed two originated from Burdoun (Reunion) or Mauritius and two from Amsterdam. The Government of Holland, who ruled Indonesia, actively promoted the usefulness of the oil palm tree and established experimental plots at Banjar Mas in Java and Palembang in Sumatra, Indonesia. It took another fifty years before an oil palm plantation was established.

The lack of enthusiasm of local authorities of Java and the doubts of planters both about the profitability and the milling methods to be employed held back the development of the oil palm industry. The technology for processing palm oil was finally invented in the early 1900s. At that time, oil palm had to compete with rubber, which was experiencing near-fever demand to make tires for cars.

The foundation of the oil plantation industry is generally attributed to one M. Adrien Hallet, a Belgian with some knowledge of oil palm in Africa. He planted oil palms of Deli origin in 1911 on a large commercial oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Hallet recognized the avenue palm trees growing in Deli, near Medan, Indonesia,  were more productive than the palm trees in Africa and also had superior fruit composition. Within three years, 2,600 hectares of oil palm trees were planted. However, the growing of oil palm trees stagnated during the First World War.

In the meantime, another planter, M.H. Fauconnier, a Frenchman, who had been associated with Hallet, planted oil palm trees in neighbouring Malaya during 1911 and 1912 at Rantau Panjang, Kuala Selangor, Selangor. The oil palms were in full bearing by 1917 and in that year the first seedling were planted on an area later to be known as Tennamaram Estate.  When we visited the estate, the first oil palm trees in Malaya were no longer there as palm oil trees grow for about thirty years.  Nevertheless, the progeny of these early oil palm trees built the foundation of the globally important palm oil industry.

Other Planters Took Notice   

The second commercial oil palm plantation was established by Messr. Guthrie at Sungai Buloh, near Kuala Lumpur, which was known as Elmina Estate. The first palm oil processing mill was established by Sime Darby in 1925 at the Tennamaram Estate, which extracted crude palm oil from oil palm fruits.  Over the years, due to the growing population of Kuala Lumpur, Elmina Estate became a housing area, and nearby the largest prison complex in Malaysia.

In the period when rubber dominated the agriculture sector in Malaya, a few planters with an eye to overseas markets began growing the oil palm. Although palm oil was used in the manufacture of soaps, margarine, vegetable oils and grease, there was little progress in the industry. After the slump in rubber prices after the First World War, rubber planters were forced to search for alternative crops.  No large-scale development occurred until 1924, when three rubber companies in the Guthrie group formed Oil Palm Malaya Ltd. The example was followed by other planters. Because of the need for capital and special expertise, especially in processing of oil palm, the industry was confined to large plantations, using the then advantage of existing rubber industry infrastructure. In addition, the oil palm, which in Africa grew naturally in riverine forests or freshwater swamps, flourished in Malaya’s tropical climate. Without pronounced dry season, Malaya was a place where an oil palm tree could be planted throughout the year..

Following table highlights the key events in the palm oil industry

Source:  Dato’ Anuar Md Nor, The palm oil multinationals from Malaysia. Lambert Academic Publishing , 2015.

Continue in Part 2