Benefits Of Emponsized By Jokowi To Prevent COVID-19

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JAKARTA - One way to prevent being exposed to the corona virus in the style of President Joko Widodo is to consume herbal drinks such as ginger, ginger, lemongrass and turmeric mixed together every day.

Jokowi said that since the Covid-19 epidemic, he drank more and more potions of empon-empon, he even offered it to visiting state guests. "Now because there is corona, I drink it morning, noon, night," he said.

According to Iis Wahyuningsih and Lina Widiyastuti in the Journal of Innovation and Application of Science and Technology (2019), empon-empon contains a lot of nutritious compounds. In ginger, for example, there are curcumin compounds which are antioxidants.

Antioxidants for the body are useful for protecting cells from damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals can come from outside the body, such as pollution, cigarette smoke, pesticides, or drugs. Apart from curcumin, ginger also contains phenolic compounds which function as antioxidants as well.

Then other empon-empon plants such as ginger are often touted as preventing corona, although until now they have not been clinically tested. In ginger there are compounds of gingerol, shogaol, zingeron, and diarylheptanol, which are antioxidant compounds.

The gingerol compound in ginger, writes the alodokter.com page, is thought to be able to fight the respiratory syncytial virus that causes respiratory tract infections. This spicy flavor has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Another example of empon-empon, turmeric which according to Wahyuningsih et al. (2019) has chemical content of flavonoids and essential oils which have potential as antioxidants.

Then lemongrass leaves are not much different in their benefits from other empon-empon, namely as an antioxidant because they contain active phenolic compounds.

Chairman of the PB of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Daeng M Faqih explained, empon-empon is indeed effective in increasing endurance. However, he did not agree if the empon-empon was used as an antidote to the corona virus.

"However, if it is argued for Covid-19 that I do not agree with," said Daeng as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

The most effective way to prevent the corona virus according to the World Health Organization (WHO) is to wash your hands frequently. Of course, wash your hands using soap and water.

Then keep a distance from people affected by Covid-19 symptoms, for example coughing a cold. WHO recommends keeping a distance of about one meter or three footsteps. Finally, touch your eyes, nose and mouth as much as possible.