Jamaica is well known for its many medicinal plants which are widely used in a number of folk remedies, teas and 'root' wines. One of these medicinal plants is bitterwood or picrasma excelsa. It is a native forest tree which can grow up to a hundred feet tall. The bark and the wood when chipped and dried are used in herbal medicines and in tonics to stimulate appetite, aid digestion, treat anorexia nervosa and tone up a run-down system.

The ingredients are also used in significant quantities in alcoholic beverages, particularly in aperitifs such as Campari, soft drinks, candies, baked goods, marmalades, liqueurs and can be substituted for hops in brewing beer and ale. Bitterwood is also valuable in the pesticide industry against flies, spider mites and aphids, but reportedly non-toxic against a number of beneficial insects such as ladybird beetles and bees. It is also utilised in cattle feed as an ingredient to increase weight gain.

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Jamaica is the main global source of bitterwood and current indications are that world demand has been increasing and that the annual exports of wood chips are presently approximately 300 tonnes per annum. There is a large value addition between the price paid for the wood chips as raw materials and the extracted active ingredients. Estimates are that the price for the extracted ingredients could be as high as approximately 20 times that paid for the chips.

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In a bid to tap into this potentially lucrative market, executive director of the Natural Products Institute at the UWI, Mona campus, Dr Trevor Yee, and Professor Helen Jacobs of the Department of Chemistry in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Mona, have designed a commercial process to convert the raw material into a finished product, ready to be used. The process incorporates a system of quality control which satisfies the demands of the overseas processor. The chemicals used by the UWI researchers are all generally regarded as safe and this is necessary because the main use of the finished products is for human and animal consumption.

Dr Yee and Professor Jacobs have applied for and received Jamaican and US patents to prevent the unauthorised use of the process by others. A European patent has been applied for and is pending. The ultimate goal is the establishment of a local extraction plant which will allow all the economic benefits to remain in Jamaica. These include: local, especially rural, employment, increased foreign exchange earnings and agro-industrial development.