National scene: Herbal medicine market expanding, researcher says
The Jakarta Post | Thu, 08/19/2010 8:25 AM | National
YOGYAKARTA: The herbal medicine market has been expanding every year with Rp 6 trillion estimated for this year’s domestic sales, a researcher from Gadjah Mada University’s Pharmacology Department said.
“The domestic market of herbal products grew from Rp 1 trillion [US$111 million] in 2000 to Rp 2 trillion in 2002. It has grown steadily and this year the market is estimated to see Rp 6 trillion,” Mae Sri Hartati Wahyuningsih said Wednesday.
She said chemical drugs could not replace herbal medicines so the consumption of herbal medicine increased every year. “Indonesians have known the benefits of various plants for health treatment ingredients, curative substances or beauty,” she said as quoted by Antara.
She said many businesspeople saw it as opportunity for investment. Many herbal medicine producers are home industries but several have produced herbal ingredients on a large scale distributing them nationwide even outside the country.
“Using herbal medicines is common practice for Indonesians and many have experienced benefits,” she said. “There are an estimated 30,000 species of plants in Indonesia and about 9,600 could be used for medicine. From that number, only 300 are used as ingredients.” — JP
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