Objective – Maintenance of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) numbers is important to preserve the balance required for normal tissue regeneration. ‘Ajwa’ date palm fruit, a popular Middle Eastern food, is known for its superior nutrition and medicinal properties. However, the direct effect of ‘Ajwa’ dates on stem cell biology remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the potential effect of ‘Ajwa’ date palm fruit on BMMSC proliferation. Materials and methods – BMMSC were treated with different concentrations of aqueous extract of ‘Ajwa’ date palm fruit (mg mL-1). Proliferation, morphology, surface markers and gene expression of BMMSC were evaluated after the treatment. Results and discussion – ‘Ajwa’ date palm fruit significantly enhanced BMMSC proliferation and retained the stemness of BMMSC. Quantitative gene expression analysis demonstrated significant increase of proliferation related genes; β-Catenin, C-Myc and HGF and lower expression of apoptotic genes; BAX and Caspase-3 and senescence-related gene, p21. Conclusion – These findings suggest the potential effect of ‘Ajwa’ date palm fruit as stem cell nutrition in the preservation of endogenous BMMSC for tissue regeneration.

Abstract:The Halal pharmaceutical industry is relatively new and offers untapped opportunities to be furtherdeveloped. The objective of this study is to develop Halal certification modules and training programmes tocater to the differing groups of auditors, industry, health professionals and consumers. In January 2012,Standards Malaysia announced the debut of the new Malaysian Standard for Halal pharmaceuticals, MS2424:2012, a great leap forward in allowing pharmaceutical manufacturers to obtain Halal compliance certificationfor their products. With the advent of this Halal standard, there is now a growing demand from thepharmaceutical industry for training programmes in order to apply and achieve Halal certification for theirproducts. The MS 2424:2012 standard is studied in depth and organizations involved in the development areconsulted to develop appropriate training modules. Experts from various fields including medicine, dentistry,shariah, science and others are recruited and trained to become module instructors. The graduate internsinvolved in the project undergo attachments and extensive training in view of upscaling into halalpharmaceutical executives. The launch of the modules and training programme is expected to contributesignificantly to greater ability of the pharmaceutical industry to cater to Halal requirements and thus satisfypublic demand, while at the same time promising higher sales and export potential. There is a growingawareness and thus corresponding demand for medicines that comply with shariah requirement from the Muslimummah or public. Thus, the research perspective of halal pharmaceutical industry in Malaysia becomes wider.The development of the training module is an effort to facilitate the pharmaceutical industry to comply with theshariah requirements. Key words: Pharmaceuticals Halal Training Module MS2424:2012 Certification