Central Luzon is known to have an abundant source of natural resources which could be a good source of potential bioactive constituents with pharmaceutical plant activities. With this, the Central Luzon Health Research and Development Consortium (CLHRDC) – Capacity Building Committee conducted a Training on Isolation and Purification of Bioactive Constituents from Herbal Plants on October 23-24, 2013 at the Angeles University Foundation, Angeles City, Pampanga. It aimed to capacitate health researchers in Region III in the field of drug discovery and development and was attended by participants from member-institutions who are involved in the said field of research.

Dr. Irene M. Villaseñor, a Professor from the Institute of Chemistry, UP Diliman was the resource speaker. She is the Chair of Division X also known as the Chemical Sciences Division of the National Research Council of the Philippines and author of numerous scientific publications. She started the session by a lecture regarding the process and concepts of drug discovery and development, isolation and purification which was then followed by a laboratory workshop.

This capability building training can hopefully pave the way to tap into research funding offered by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) specifically in the Drug Discovery and Development. Under the Regional Research Fund (RRF), the said agency is providing PhP 300,000.00 for a qualified project.  This fund is a tool to encourage new researchers to be actively involved in health research activities without having to compete with more experienced researchers and obtain experience by implementing simple yet relevant health research projects. This funding opportunity also encourages research collaboration among state universities and colleges (SUCs), private higher education institutions and government R&D institutes in the region.

The participants with the Capacity Building Committee and Dr. Villaseñor.