The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has underscored Indonesia's significant potential to produce herbal medicines, leveraging its abundant biodiversity. BRIN Head, Laksana Tri Handoko, revealed that Indonesia has identified approximately 30,000 species from its biodiversity, yet only 76 standardized herbal medicines have been developed.  Handoko emphasized the importance of optimizing this biodiversity to achieve medicinal and health sovereignty for Indonesia, which could prevent future medicine shortages and competition as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated, "Raw material sovereignty is a crucial aspect of modern resilience, more important than just issues of war."

Transforming natural raw materials into medicines involves a lengthy process, requiring extensive research and technological development of processing methods. While certain plants can serve as raw materials for paracetamol, creating machines to process these plants into paracetamol consistently is still a challenge. Handoko asserted that BRIN is actively seeking collaborations with the health industry to enable Indonesia to produce medicines and medical devices independently using its biodiversity resources. He noted, "The industry that manufactures these machines does not exist in Indonesia. Therefore, we inevitably need to partner with the manufacturing industry."  In conclusion, Handoko stressed the need for Indonesia to develop its capabilities in processing natural raw materials into medicines to ensure national health sovereignty and resilience against future crises.

Source: https://jatim.antaranews.com/amp/berita/791928/potensi-indonesia-pada-obat-herbal-yang-sangat-besar