Jakarta, March 11 (Antara) - Indonesia is one of the countries well-known for its herbal medicines used as alternatives to modern prescribed drugs, yet it needs to further study thousands of its herbal plants to reveal their medicinal properties.
The country is believed to have 30 thousand herbal plants, of which only 13 thousands have been used to produce medicinal herbs. But only a handful has been studied and is proven to have healing properties.
Hence, the country should continue to conduct studies on its herbal plants to reveal their healing properties. Many Indonesians prefer to take herbal medicines, locally known as 'jamu,' to avoid side effects of modern drugs, to cure ailments, or just maintain general health and fitness.
Although most of the country's medicinal herbs are yet to receive scientific recognition for their medicinal properties, jamu continues to attract consumers.
For example, in 2010, based on data provided by the Health Ministry's Research and Development Center, some 50 percent of the country's population used jamu to treat ailments.
Therefore, herbal medicines are very popular in Indonesia. The country has about 3 thousand kinds of jamu products that have long been used in popular alternative treatments for various health issues.
Indeed, Indonesia is rich in medicinal plants. Unfortunately, not all of the herbal plants have been utilized to produce jamu or medicinal herbs.
According to the director of pharmacy company PT Dexa Medica, Raymond Tjandrawinata, Indonesia has about 30 thousand varieties of herbal plants but only about 13 thousand of them have been utilized to produce jamu for treatment, prevention, or healing of ailments.
However, not all of jamu products could be used as medicines to heal diseases. They are commonly used to maintain the body's fitness and prevent an illness, he noted.
"Most of the ingredients of jamu production have not been scientifically recognized as medicines but merely as herbs. It has not yet become a medicine which has been standardized," he stated.
Of the 30 thousand herbal plants, only 500 varieties have passed clinical tests on human beings and have been used to produce standardized herbal medicines (OHT) or phytopharmaca.
OHT has been categorized as medicines that cure a disease.
Till date, Indonesia has only eight kinds of phytopharmaca medicines, which have received licenses from the Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) to be put on sale, four of which are produced by PT Dexa Medica.
For this purpose, the government continues to encourage experts to carry out scientific assessment of the healing properties of Indonesian herbal medicines so as to provide them with patent rights.
Since 2010, experts have been conducting researches on medicinal herbs to ascertain their medicinal properties to cure diseases and explore possibilities for including them in doctors' prescription.
The Health Ministry has carried out a program to obtain a scientific recognition for Indonesian medicinal herbs and to make them internationally acceptable and scientifically credible as modern drugs.
So far, scientific studies have proven the safety, properties, and quality of at least five jamu that can cure hemorrhoids, dyspepsia, osteoarthritis, light hypertension, hyperuricemia, and gout complaints.
Raymond explained that the number of herbs that had received the OHT standard or have become phytopharmoca is still small, because the investment to carry out research is high and the process is time-consuming and takes years.
"Eight years of studies or research are needed to obtain one phytopharmaca medicine," he underlined.
Moreover, not many industries are interested in developing phytopharmaca medicine, because it has not yet been included in the list of national drugs designed for use by hospitals (Fornas).
Medicines should be included in the Fornas list before they could be used in the National Health Insurance program.
If, for example, the Health Ministry asks industries to conduct phytopharmaca and OHT researches for inclusion in the Fornas, they will surely be encouraged to do so, and the number of phytopharmaca medicines could increase to about 80 or even 100.
Reymond explained that developing herbal medicine for use in the health sector could reduce imports of raw materials for drugs, which are currently at 90 percent.
Industries in Indonesia do not need to import raw materials but take advantage of the richness of medicinal plants that grow here to produce herbal medicines.
To further popularize jamu products at home, producers held a jamu festival in Central Java in Nov last year. It was the fifth year of jamu festival. The festival was held in Sukoharjo District, which is the biggest jamu production center.
At least 50 jamu producer industries took part in the festival where tourists could explore the Indonesian medical herbs.
The organizers facilitated the holding of a talk-show, consultation, education on jamu production, and inviting visitors to visit the jamu industry center village in Sukoharjo.
In 2015, the jamu festival was also held in Central Java in May, when the organizers hoped jamu transactions would reach Rp500 million, an increase of about 20 percent from transactions in the festival in the previous year, which stood at Rp425 million.
The number of participants was more than 100 industries in 2015, and some 50 producers attended the festival in 2014.
Moreover, promotions need to be increased to further popularize the country's jamu products. Jamu is a huge national asset that should continue to be popularized.
Therefore, Indonesia needs to promote and preserve the nation's production of jamu, which is the ancestral heritage of the Indonesian people.***4***
(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE /H-YH (T.A014/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 11-03-2017 17:22: |
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