PADANG BESAR, Nov 25 — Perak, Penang, Kedah and Perlis are be the pioneer states in the cultivation of guarana, a medicinal herbal plant, expected to be implemented next year.

Rubber Research Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) chairman, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin said the agency had been studying the effectiveness of this plant as an alternative to ketum.

He said the plant, native to Brazil, could provide lucrative returns to farmers, particularly rubber smallholders.

“Due to its effectiveness, the demand for this herbal plant in making health and beauty products, and as a drink is very high,” said Zahidi when met at a smallholders’ get-together with the RISDA chairman at Dewan Seri Melati in Beseri, here, today.

Medically known as Paullina cupana, guarana has stimulant properties. Its seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee seeds.

Zahidi said guarana was chosen as an alternative plant after the proposal to commercialise ketum was rejected by the government, but there were constraints and certain factors like bringing in the seeds in large quantities that needed to be sorted out first.

However, he added, trial planting of the plant from sample seeds had been carried out on a piece of land in Penang.

According to Zahidi, the price of guarana seeds could reach over RM100 per kilogramme and each tree could produce about 50 kg of the seeds after six months of planting.

“This plant can be grown as a cash crop on rubber smallholdings,” he said, adding that if the trial cultivation showed encouraging results and all the procedures could be met, they would be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil in January to bring back a large quantity of guarana seeds to Malaysia.

Zahidi who is also the MP for Padang Besar, noted that the agency had allocated RM4.6 million for the Perlis RISDA Development Programme next year including rubber replanting, the entrepreneurship programme and advisory services programme for smallholders.

He also handed out aid of RM300 each to 1,200 smallholders under RISDA in the Padang Besar constituency for their children’s new school session early next year. — Bernama