Benefits of natural medicines for human health

In addition to the need for clothing, food, and the board of education, health care is also one of the basic human needs, because the condition of good health and condition of the prime body, humans can carry the process of life, grow and run the activities with both. In the event of an illness or health interference, then the medicine will become an important part of efforts to play an active role in the recovery condition is pain.

During this time, putting the health of Western medicine (modern) as the basic national health system, as well as various regulations and policies concerning the more modern drugs. On the other hand, refers to the Eastern philosophy of treatment, human existence is not separate from the elements of the universe, which includes water, fire, earth and air. The existence of human life in the middle should be considered holistic. When the human subject's health, harmony kehidupannyapun subject. At the time this is the human need medicine to restore health.

Talking about natural medicine, its use can be the source of culture and the concept of health from some of the principles of approach among ayurveda, Chinese and Unani-Tibb (Wijesekera, 1991)


Ayurveda system that developed in India and Southeast Asia embrace the concept of health based on the refund recovery (restoration) and to maintain the balance of the body in the normal circumstances. Chinese system, which is developing in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, at its core emphasis on the return to the dynamic functional relationships between organs. While Unani-Tibb system developing in the Middle East, especially Egypt and Turkey, based on the concept of systematic therapy. In Indonesia alone, the basis of traditional scientific concept has not been systematically documented, but the benefits have been felt particularly by people whose lives far from modern medical facilities.

The use of plant medicines in the community is very broad, ranging up to penyedap for industrial raw materials of medicines and cosmetics. However, in the public health service system, the fact is the role of natural medicines have not been fully recognized, although the empirical benefits of natural medicines have been proven. As one example is the use of herbal medicine as a tonic, stiff rheumatic drugs, maintain the beauty, pain pereda time coming months and others, imply that the use of herbal medicine is very knowledgeable in the community. Indeed, we realize that the production of herbal medicine is not much left out by the results of research because, among other producers of herbal medicine is generally still cling to the compound revealed that hereditary. As a result, to this day is still the traditional medicine of alternative treatment in addition to modern medicine.

With the financial crisis that Indonesia and the economic crisis continues to be a prolonged, melonjaknya impact on the price of modern medicine dramatically because more than 90% depending on the import of raw material. Traditional medicine, which is the potential of Indonesia, therefore, can at least participate in solving this problem and simultaneously obtain mendayagunakan and the opportunity to play a role as elements in the system of public health, all the more with the policy of the Minister of Health of Indonesia in 1999 to develop and utilize Indonesian medicinal plants for pharmaceutical needs in Indonesia.

Strong tendency to use the treatment with natural ingredients, does not only apply in Indonesia, but also applies in many countries as ways of implementing this concept back to nature back to nature or the side effects believed to have a smaller than modern medicines.

Given the opportunity medicines take part in nature in the public health service system is quite large and so can be a factor in this system, natural medicine should be developed further in order to meet the requirements of security, property and quality.