From Vienna to Yogyakarta: the life of Herb Feith

Herb Feith came to Australia as a Jewish refugee from Europe as it was on the bring of war in 1939 and went on to become an internationally renowned and passionate scholar of Indonesia. He died tragically in Melbourne in 2001. This engaging biography tells his own extraordinary story and traces his interest in Indonesia, his determination to establish networks of serious study of Indonesia and Southeast Asia and his commitment to peace activism.

Knowing Indonesia Inside and Out: Herb Feith and the Intellectual Search for Understanding

Herb Feith was one of Australia's first and most prominent scholars of Indonesia. His books and articles dating from the late 1950s are still read by students of Indonesian politics today, and his opinion on Indonesia's future was sought until the day he died by people both in Australia and in Indonesia. He was also among the first to teach peace studies in Australian universities and is remembered for his activism on human rights, peace, and environmental issues as well as his scholarship. Jemma Purdey is researching and writing a biography of Herb Feith with particular focus on his engagement with Indonesia, both as scholar and humanist. This article endeavours to open up one of the areas explored in the biography, the relationship between the ‘foreign’ scholar and his subject, Indonesia. How does the initial point of engagement with Indonesia impact on the scholars’ way of ‘knowing’ it? The article is also a preliminary reflection on the process of writing, as the author negotiates her approach as biographer.

Characterization of saccharides and phenolic acids in the Chinese herb Tanshen by ESI-FT-ICR-MS and HPLC

This study sought to determine the main components (saccharides and phenolic acids) in crude extract of the Chinese herb Tanshen by electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonant mass spectrometry (ESI-FT-ICR-MS) in negative-ion mode. Eleven compounds were identified as phenolic acids by exact mass measurement and further confirmed by sustained off-resonance irradiation (SORI) CID data. In addition, monosaccharicles and oligosaccharides (n = 2 similar to 5) and a serial of corresponding anionic adducts of saccharide were observed without adding any anions additionally to the extract solution, and the anionic components were unambiguously identified as H2O, HCl, HCOOH, HNO3, C3H6O2, H2SO4 and C5H7NO3 according to the exact mass measurement results.

Qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of quaternary alkaloids in Coptis-scute herb couple by Electrospray mass Spectrometry

A practical solution of qualitatively analyzing quaternary alkaloids in coptis-scute herb couple by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry(ESI-MS) was developed. Without the complicated pretreatment of sample, the active ingredients including berberine, palmatine, coptisine, jatrorrhizine, epiberberine, and columbamine were identified and some relative content changing rules of alkaloids in coptis-scute couple were summarized in this article. The overall profiles of the complex extracts were obtained.

Identification of herb Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. Et Maxim.) harms by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemical detection

In this paper, a rapid, high efficient, sensitive and inexpensive approach based on a combination of simple ultrasonic extract and capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation with electrochemical detection (ED), is described to identify herbs by comparing their CE-ED profiles (namely, CE-ED electropherograms). The proposed method takes advantage of ultrasmall sample volume, low consumption of organic solvent, simple sample pretreatment and easy cleanup procedure. It was applied to analyze the CE-ED profiles of stems of herb Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. Et Maxim.) Harms from different sources and different parts (roots, rhizomes, stems and leaves) of this herb. By comparing peak number, peak height and peak height ratio, we found that the CE-ED profiles showed big differences for the herbs from the different sources and the different parts of this herb. In addition, the distribution of bioactive compounds (isofraxidin, rutin and chlorogenic acid) in the different parts of this herb and their content variations affected by the source were studied with the CE-ED method. Based on their own unique CE-ED profiles, these herbs from the different sources and the different parts of this herb could be easily distinguished. Therefore, the proposed approach could be used as a rapid, high efficient and sensitive method for the identification of herbal medicines.

Chinese herb medicines analyses by capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) with amperometric detection (AD) has been widely used in various fields of analytical science, especially in the pharmaceutical industry recently due to its high separation efficiency and low detection limit. The determination of active ingredients in Chinese herb medicines by CE-AD is of great importance in developing the researches on pharmacology of herbs, quantitative analysis and quality control. Analyses of the effective components in Chinese herb medicines and compound Chinese herb medicine by CE-AD are reviewed in this paper. In contrast with other analysis methods, the advantage of CE-AD is discussed. The development in analyses of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) by CE-AD in future is mentioned.