Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin together with Indonesian Minister of Health Budi G. Sadikin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Harvick Hasnul Qolbi officially launched Indonesia's Featured Medicinal Plants and Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 54 of 2023 on the Development and Utilization of Jamu at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) during the Health Innovation and Technology Exhibition in Health Transformation, on Thursday (9/11).
Temulawak as an icon of Indonesian medicinal plants is designated as a superior Indonesian medicinal plant, after going through a series of selection processes, involving cultural and ethnomedicine experts, academics, industry practitioners, ministries / institutions, the Indonesian Herbal Pharmacist Professional Association, the Jamu Saintification Doctor Association, GP Jamu, and the Indonesian Medical Herbal Doctor Association.
Temulawak has been supported by strong research and evidence-based, ranging from ethnomedicine research, in vitro research, pre-clinical research to clinical trials. For product development, research has also been conducted for extraction technology, standardization, and formulation.
In his remarks, the Vice President said that every country in the world faces complex and diverse challenges in the health sector, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The pressures and tests to achieve health resilience are becoming increasingly severe especially in the face of population growth, rapid urbanization, climate change, and the threat of new types of diseases," said the Vice President.
Furthermore, the Vice President said "As a large country that is blessed by Allah SWT with an abundance of natural and human resources, we must tighten our efforts in innovation and mastery of technology so that our nation is not left behind in various fields of development including in the health sector," said the Vice President.
Even so, it must be understood that innovation is not only about the invention of advanced technology but how to think creatively in utilizing the natural resources owned, "We can learn from developed countries that have successfully integrated traditional medicines into their health systems," the Vice President said.
Indonesia is rich in traditional medicinal plants with thousands of plant species that have medicinal properties, but only a small portion is used as raw material for the traditional medicine industry.
"Let us empower the traditional knowledge and cultural heritage to produce the widest possible benefit for the health of the people," the Vice President said.
The Vice President welcomed the fact that temulawak was named as Indonesia's flagship medicinal plant. "Hopefully this will be a good step to support the achievement of the independence of the domestic pharmaceutical industry," he hoped.
He also requested that this temulawak product needs to continue to be considered and maintained from the aspects of quality, safety, and supervision so that it is safe for public consumption.
"Indonesian traditional medicines that have been standardized and recognized as quality products, should continue to be promoted and encouraged so that they can compete with similar products from other countries, such as ginseng and others," the Vice President said.
Previously, Minister of Health Budi G. Sadikin reported that in this activity, Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 54 of 2023 concerning the Development and Utilization of Jamu was also launched, as an effort to encourage national health independence.
"Hopefully, with this presidential regulation on herbal medicine, more Indonesians will be more confident to consume herbal medicine," the Minister hoped.