Center aims to bring RI herbs to global market

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Indonesia trails only Brazil and Zaire in terms of biodiversity, yet the country still relies on imports of raw materials from India and Thailand for its traditional herbal medicine industry.

The head of Bogor's Aromatic and Herbal Plants Research Center (Balittro), H.A.M. Syakir, said the government's lack of attention to the cultivation of herbal plants was to blame for the insufficient supply of raw material for traditional medicine production.

Syakir spoke to journalists during a one-day exhibition and workshop on aromatic and herbal plants, at Botani Square Bogor earlier this week.

Some 75 researchers, medical practitioners, businesspeople and farmers took part in the event.

According to data from the center, Indonesia has identified 30,000 different kinds of endemic plants, 7,000 of them herbal plants. About 1,000 of the endemic plants are poisonous.

"(A)nd there are more than 50 kinds of aromatic plants," Syakir said.

He said there were countless traditional recipes for herbal medicines draw from about 370 ethnic groups across the archipelago.

"Our ancestors have used plants to treat illness, as health supplement, for body treatments and for cosmetics," Syakir said.

However, little has been done by the government or local administrations to cultivate the "hidden treasures" among the herbal plants, he said.

The 2000 Convention on Biological Diversity reported the global market for herbal medicines reached US$43 billion.

Indonesia earned just $100 million from herbal medicines in 2000.

Last year, the herbal medicine industry in Indonesia earned Rp 3 trillion ($318 million), far less than China's $6 billion and Malaysia's $1.2 billion.

Syakir said that by 2010 Indonesia could be earning Rp 8 trillion from herbal medicines with proper government support for the industry.

Fast-changing trends in the industry and a continued reliance on traditional cultivation methods are among the challenges facing Indonesia's industry, Syakir said.

"Our weakest point is that we cannot guarantee a steady supply for export because we still rely on traditional farmers."

Farmers cannot even meet the needs of domestic herbal medicine manufacturers, he said.

"A recent study we did showed domestic manufacturers are only getting 15 percent of their supplies from local farmers, with the remaining 85 percent imported. You can imagine the potential and the profit for farmers if they could guarantee a steady supply just for domestic manufacturers."

The Balittro research center, in cooperation with the Health Ministry, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency and the National Standardization Body, is working to develop a standard of cultivation that can produce good quality herbal plants and larger harvests.

The center is currently studying jahe besar putih or white ginger, which is now mostly imported from India, kunyit (turmeric), kencur (galingale), temulawak (wild ginger), sambiloto, pegagan and purwoceng.

"Those plants are basic commodities of global herbal medicine production so if we can focus on these selected plants, we can play a greater role in global trade," Syakir said.

There are several government institutions who have launched programs dealing with herbal plants, but the bodies are working on their own, he said.

"There is no body to coordinate the agencies so they are heading to different destinations and mostly operating on a smaller scope in their respective areas."

Syakir would like to emulate South Korea, which is a major player in the international market with ginseng.

Korea, he said, knew how to protect its ginseng supply and continued to dominate the market.

Indonesia in the 1980s, according to Syakir, was the king of ginger, dominating markets in Japan and the Middle East, but had since lost its competitive edge.