No abstract

Abstract-For the past 3 decades, the Malaysian Islamic banking sector has been growing rapidly with an average of 18% growth per annum in terms of assets since 2000. As at 2013, Malaysia continued to record substantial achievement with a total asset of RM426.16 billion which represent about 13% of the total global Islamic banking assets, behind only to Iran and Saudi Arabia. However, if compare to conventional banking sector in terms of assets and customers size, the Malaysian Islamic banking sector is considered at its infancy stage. This is mainly due to the late establishment of Islamic concept into the banking system. Although the general awareness towards Islamic banking in Malaysia is considered at acceptable level, in terms of assets, financing and deposits the Islamic banking sector only captured about 13%-14% of the total banking markets share which is still far fetch from the conventional banking sector. Nevertheless, the consumer market still provides great opportunity for the Islamic banks to target on for more profitability. Therefore, Islamic banks should formulate strategies to educate and attract more consumers to use Islamic banking products. The objective of this short paper is to discuss on the sustainable growth of the Islamic banking consumer market in Malaysia in order to identify a research gap. The research methodology is based on analytical literature review. It is found that lack of studies was conducted on customer perceptions. In the conclusion, this paper strongly recommended more empirical studies on customer perceptions towards Islamic banking in Malaysia should be conducted immediately.Index Terms-Islamic banking, consumer market, sustainable growth, customer perceptions.

Zn is an important element in both industrial and biological sense. The great industrial importance of Zn has made this element a potential hazard to vegetable consuming humans. In this review, the important biological role of Zn and the human Zn dietary requirement as well as its toxicity are discussed. The Zn in various commonly consumed vegetables have also been reviewed. Based on a range to previous studies, it is confirmed that human activities such as metal mining and smelting as well as the application of manure fertilizer could contribute to Zn enrichment in both cultivation soil and the vegetable tissues. Zn in vegetable tissues also been discovered to have a strong and positive correlation with some element such as K, Fe, Mn and Cd. Due to Zn's industrial importance, it will always be a possibility of the occurrence of high Zn enrichment due to anthropogenic activities. Despite the biological importance, the constant monitoring of Zn in various food crops should not be neglected.due to the chelation of zinc by non-digestible plant ligands such as dietary fibers, phytates and lignin [9].The appearance of other cations could also affect zinc availability. The resorption could also be reduced by increased bivalent cations, such as iron, cadmium, nickel, calcium, magnesium and copper [9,11,12].

Heavy metal pollution in agricultural soil has been a worldwide issue where it may bring upon the bioaccumulation of the pollutants in crops such as vegetables [1]. Human activities such as mining, the use of agricultural pesticides, and untreated water irrigation contributed to a major part of metal contamination in soil and vegetables [2,3]. Metal-contaminated vegetables has been a major concern for consumers because it constitutes one of the main route of heavy metals into the

This paper reviews the potentials and challenges of using Oil Palm Biomass Wastes (OPBW) as Renewable Energy (RE) source in Malaysia. The OPBW mainly includes Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) and Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB). From the present review, the major potentials of OPBW consist of their large availability, being a major sources of lignocellulosic materials for industrial, being economically viable, being a solution to the disposal problem and cost-benefit. The challenges of using OPBW as RE source are being a high dependency on the availability of the OPWB, unfair subsidies given to RE based fuel, the use of POME that produces methane, substantial amount of under-utilization of lignocellulosic wastes from OPBW, the need for further studies on the correct selection of generation plant size, and not economically competitive. Overall, the challenge is to make the OPBWs as a reliable, profitable and sustainable RE industry. Based on the present review mainly from Malaysia, there are definite potentials/advantages of using OPBW as RE source in Malaysia. Ways and suggestions on these practical issues on how to reduce problems facing the use of OPBW as RE source in Malaysia should be investigated and addressed before the large scale utilization of OPBW as RE source can be anticipated in Malaysia.