The vivid carpet of purple on the ground shimmers in the sunlight that shone bravely through the clouds. The breeze blows gently and the pale purple blanket ripples like satin caressed by loving fingers.

This lovely sight that stirred those fanciful imaginings is a field of purple flowers on a field at Balung River Plantation, Tawau, an area best known for its oil palm plantation. And the purple carpet field was a field of Orthosiphon Stamineus or Misai Kucing, an herb that grows profusely on any fertile soil in the tropics. The fascinating sight is almost ethereal.

Be that as it may, most of us will treat this flowering plant for landscaping our garden, but it has been used as traditional herb for a long time. It is believed to be good for treating diabetes, kidney and high blood pressure, among others.

"It is prepared and taken just like tea." This is what Paul Sumbing, 46, the person in charge of the Misai Kucing processing plant in Balung says.

In that plantation there are about 100 acres of land playing host to Misai Kucing. A veteran of tea picking and processing being in the profession for 18 years with another company, Paul says that the part of the plant most utilised are the leaves. Although the medicinal properties may be most of the flowers, Balung at the moment process the leaves only, he says. "The leaves are picked everyday. Everyday we will pick about two metric tons daily of material. In a day we can produce about 300 kilos. This translates to 6400 boxes. In each box there are 25 sachets of 50 gms each," he shares.

On the tea processing procedures, he says processing black tea and misai kucing is similar, except misai kucing did not involve fermentation.

Presently the market for Misai Kucing herbal tea is local, but Paul believes that this product has very high potential and may soon go into the national market, if not internationally. 

According to the information provided by the Plantation, the herbal tea is traditionally ysed for the treatment of liver, gallbladder, and diabetes as well as urinary tract infections. It can also be used to lower high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

I believe that the Balung produced Misai Kucing herbal tea should be promoted proudly as a local product to tourists. Hotels and restaurants can pick this product up and serve as well as show it to our guests, and promote it just as one more of our traditional health produce in Sabah.

Those interested in this product and want to add one more tourism product for your guests, call 019-8501186 for more information may be a good idea.

By Anna Vivienne
New Sabah Times, Thursday August 21, 2008