AT 27 years old, Dr Cliff Riley – who has a PhD in Biotechnology – is involved in a potentially ground-breaking research project which won him the prestigious 2006 Scientific Research Council/Jamaica Public Service (SRC/JPS) Young Scientist of the Year award last November.

For him, the award is both an accomplishment and a source of motivation to continue his research on Jamaican yam starches to detect their usefulness in a variety of pharmaceutical products.

“I feel very good about it. I am extremely overwhelmed. It is a very prestigious award. The first one was received by Dr Lawrence Williams in 1990, and when you get an award which was received by a stalwart such as Williams, you feel as if you have really achieved something significant,” he told the Observer.

“You feel a sense of achievement, and also it gives you a sense of realisation and comfort to know that your work is accepted locally and all the efforts were not in vain. You have a stronger drive to go ahead with your work,” added Riley, who also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry and works as an associate director of research at the Northern Caribbean University.

The research effort saw Riley and his team extracting the starches from two dozen varieties of yam and then comparing the results to corn starch, which is typically used as the binder in many pharmaceutical products, such as some pain killers.

“We looked at their (the yam starches’) properties – physical, chemical and biological properties – and how these can be used or adapted in pharmaceutical formulations such as tablets, capsules and granules for reconstitution,” noted Riley, a plant tissue culture consultant for Christiana Potato Growers Cooperative.

“These were compared to the commonly used corn starch. In the pharmaceutical formulations, we looked at the rate of drug release in granules and tablets. We used parasetamol (as the drug) and the control was the corn starch and granules,” he added.

They also looked at the rate at which 80 per cent of the drug was released. The results were encouraging.

“From our studies, we found that the granules which are formulated with all the yam starches at 2.65 per cent binder concentration had faster rates than the commonly used corn starch, while granules with Chinese yam, and bitter yam had dissolution times two times faster than those with corn starch,” Riley said smiling, clearly excited by what the findings could mean for Jamaican yams.

Riley’s investigations began in 2000 when he was a master’s student at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. Two years later, it was upgraded to a PhD. Between 2000 and 2002, he looked at the properties of the yams, while 2002 to 2004 saw him looking at the pharmaceutical applications.

It may not appear very exciting on the face of it, but it is research that could see Jamaica tapping into the multibillion dollar pharmaceutical industry.

“What this means is that granules and tablets which are formulated with these (yam) starches as binders could possibly result in a faster relief from a particular illness or ailment being treated,” he told the Observer. “We also found that granules formulated with Chinese and bitter yams had higher bioavailability, meaning that the amount of drug released over a particular time was more than formulations with corn starch,” he added.

Riley is passionate about his research. He foresees the potential benefits to Jamaica, economic and otherwise, that may be gained from seeing the investigations through to fruition.

“We produce over 250,000 tonnes of yam annually. Of this 250,000 tonnes, up to 40 per cent of it is lost or discarded due to poor storage-ability. So my PhD supervisors and myself decided that we should find some alternative means of exploiting these yams since we use so much money on the storage,” Riley said of his work.

“We are looking at the Caribbean saving funds from importing starch. You have pharmaceutical companies in Guyana and Barbados, who are importing starch on an annual basis and it significantly affects their importation bill,” he added. “So if we have plants in Jamaica with starches that are of pharmaceutical significance, then these can be used for regional formulations and ultimately, for international formulations as there are ongoing efforts to find recipients for pharmaceutical formulations.”

He noted that there was no question of the promising nature of the research, based on the findings so far.

“In pharmaceutics, when you are looking at formulating a capsule or tablet, what you want is to produce a formulation where the drug is released in a timely manner, depending on the type of drug. Also, you want to produce a formulation with high bioavailability,” he said. “You can release up to 80 per cent of the drug, but when it comes on to the bioavailability, you want to know how much of the drug is being released. The amount that will be released is dependent on the strength of the binder.”

The yam starches looked at also revealed that there were those that were stronger than corn starch and those that were weaker, which is a win-win for Jamaica. The stronger the binder, the slower the drug is released and the weaker it is, the faster the drug is released.

So what’s next for Riley?

He will be taking the research to the clinical trials stage, for which he and his team of professors are ready.

“We are looking at the in vivo (inside the animal) bioavailability and dissolution (the rate of drug release), and the toxicity,” the young researcher said. “The entire research is planned. All the material is there. We are just awaiting the ethics approval so the project can commence.”

But his success so far is partly due to the support he has received throughout the years.

“In terms of education, it is very important to have some motivational force behind it, especially a teacher. Once a teacher sees your potential and nourishes it, there is no limit to what you can achieve, and this is what I got from Fern Court,” he said. “I also had the support from my parents, even though they were poor. And then there were sisters and brothers, who could explain stuff to me.”

He said his marriage to Nadale, the woman of his dreams, was an added blessing. She is currently finalising her PhD in Organic Chemistry.

“Once you have people supporting you and people who are willing to listen, then you can go all the way,” he said.

“I love my research. It is something I hold very close to me because it does not only have the potential to make money and facilitate sustainable development in Jamaica. You are also looking at how you can create jobs for persons, while boosting the agriculture sector. It is not a research that you can just put on your shelf. It is something that you can do and put out there,” Riley adds.