BPOM: Jamu And Herbal Medicines To Increase Immunity, Not To Kill Viruses

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JAKARTA - Recently, the concoction of traditional medicines such as herbs or health supplements has been claimed to kill the COVID-19 virus. However, according to the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM), the concoction of traditional medicines only increases a person's immune system and not kills the virus.

"The task of herbs or herbal medicine is to form our body to prepare the army to fight these viruses," said Deputy for Supervision of Traditional Medicines, Health Supplements and Cosmetics of BPOM RI Mayagustina Andarini during an online discussion, as quoted from Antara, Monday, August 10.

So that the body of people who consume these herbs is expected to fight the virus and avoid getting sick. He is worried about the opinion of a number of people who believe that certain herbs can treat COVID-19 so they no longer care about health protocols.

Even personally, Mayagustina found a number of people with relatively high educational backgrounds, but still believed that certain herbs could ward off the corona virus. "But one of the tasks of BPOM is to educate consumers and society so that they are not easily consumed by these rumors or hoaxes," he said.

He also reminded people who have severe diseases including those who have used respirators, so the use of herbal medicine is not possible.

"So there are certain phases where we can be assisted by herbal medicines or supplements that can increase endurance. If the condition is severe, the handling is different," he said.

Regarding People Without Symptoms (OTG) COVID-19, he said, actually by adopting a healthy lifestyle including nutritious eating, exercise and adequate rest and good nutritional intake, they can recover from the disease.

Therefore, he said, all parties need to know that BPOM has never issued a permit for claiming certain drugs that are declared to be able to treat COVID-19. He said that if there is a new discovery for COVID-19, a number of stages must be carried out, up to phytopharmaca testing or human testing.

However, if there are nationals who find herbal medicine for treatment, in general the BPOM will still support it because the ingredients are not dependent or imported. In fact, if there are researchers or producers who carry out new research related to herbal medicines, the BPOM will fully support them.

Currently, BPOM is assisting 11 clinical trials of herbal medicine spread across a number of points, including Wisma Atlet, Friendship Hospital, Bandung and so on. "So research on herbal medicine as anti-COVID-19 is currently underway in several hospitals," he added.