Senior researcher at the United States Department of Health and Public Service`s National Medical Rehabilitation Research Center Hameed Khan stressed that research and development of herbal medicines would not damage the forest.
He explained, if there is an element in a plant or tree that has the potential to be used as a herbal medicine, then the gene composition is taken.
"We will not take the whole plant, all the trees, but we will make it more with bio synthesis," Khan explained.
The Head of the Bio-similar Technology Program of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Chaidir said the research approach was carried out comprehensively.
Chaidir explained that all this time herbal medicines were considered to be less effective because they were not based on scientific evidence. Therefore, later on, every plant that has health benefits will be cultivated by standard.
Herbal cultivation must be standardized starting from nurseries, planting and post harvest. The extraction must be as prescribed to maintain the quality chain of medicinal raw materials.
After that, raw materials derived from bio-syntheses will use microbes to produce the desired drug element.
Chaidir revealed that for the time being the priority ingredient for drugs to be developed is anti-inflammatory which can be developed for several types of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and asthma.
Reporting by Aditya Ramadhan
Eiting by Andi Abdussalam, Rahmat Nasution
Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Suharto
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