Features
Probiotic refers to live bacteria that may confer a health benefit on the host (definition by Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization). A research project led by PSU Department of Dentistry aimed to develop probiotic to prevent dental cavities. The process involved extracting and studying Lactobacillus from oral cavity and discovered that L. paracasei SD1 offers the following benefits:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sayan Sdoodee from the Department of Plant Science, PSU Faculty of Natural Resources, revealed that the climate change in the past not only caused geographical catastrophic events, such as coastal erosion and landslides, but also affected the southern Thai crops, especially the rice, rubber, and fruits. The agricultural production of these crops is likely to decline because of the seasons’ change. A good example of this phenomenon is the heavy rainfall from two years ago that turned into prolonged droughts this year.
“Educating villagers seems a daunting task. Attributes like appropriate instructional tools, simplified language, comprehensive presentation, and demonstrative models to show the source and direction of the flood, what obstructed and why the flood lingered longer in one area than another can help the villagers realize that the disaster did not affect just individual household, that could be prevented only by towering sandbags in the front of their door, but the impact is at a community-level, which thus requires collective effort to resolve.
A study conducted by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pharkphoom Panichayupakaranant, Director of Research in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, and Mr. Apirak Sakunpak, a Ph.D. candidate under the support of the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. Program in the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, investigated the anti-bacterial activity against gastrointestinal pathogenic bacteria of indigenous plants, specifically located in southern Thailand.
Professor Saowapa Angsupanich, Ph. D., Department of Aquatic Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University (PSU), revealed that Songkhla Lake ecology has deteriorated by intended and unintended human activities. Nevertheless, the pursuit of research and samplings of bottom-floor animals – which are small animals part of the food chain of other aquatic animals such as shrimps, clams, crabs, fish – showed increasing number of new species on the bed of the Lake.