Three school kids have won an international innovation award for ridding a rat of a cancerous tumour using a rare wood.
Youngsters Yazid (full name not disclosed), Aysa Maharani and Anggina Rafitri, who attend a state school in the city of Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo, Indonesia, received gold medals for their work during the 8th World Invention Creativity Olympic 2019 that was held in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, in July.
The brainy teens, with the assistance of their biology teacher, Herlita Gusran, used the wood of the rare local bajakah tree to make a remedy with which they reportedly rid a rat of a cancerous tumour in a fortnight.
Researchers from the University of Lambung Mangkurat, based in the cities of Banjarmasin and Banjarbaru on the island of Borneo, believe the anti-oxidant rich bajakah wood possesses substances that have the potential to eliminate cancerous cells.
The method of ingestion consists of the wood being powdered, brewed in water and drunk.
The forests in Central Kalimantan province are deemed the sole area in which the rare tree grows naturally. Little is known about the tree outside its place of origin.
In spite of the breakthrough finding, the country’s Cancer Foundation has urged people not to become overexcited, cautioning that miracle drugs to treat cancer do not exist and that treating rats is not the same as treating humans.
However, Sugianto Sabran, the Governor of Central Kalimantan province, has promised the teens further research assistance and granted them 30 million IDR (1,746 EUR) each.
The Central Kalimantan government have also expressed a desire to protect bajakah by patenting it as a drug that can be used to help treat cancer.
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Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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