Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Head of Balai Penelitian Tanaman Rempah dan Obat (Balittro), Ministry of Agriculture, Evi Savitri Iriani told that the curcuma, ginger, and turmeric are the herbs that have particles of immunity to the human’s body. She thought that curcuma and ginger has the curcumin compound and gingerol that could be safe for the people to consume.

“The herbs, namely turmeric and curcuma have curcumin while ginger has gingerol that could increase the immune in body if it is consumed regularly,” she said, Thursday (19/3/2020), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

But she continued, the people should differentiate the medical product and spice plantations. The medical products, she thought, are the plantations which have been processed to be the medicine and potion in ministry of health. The herbs are kinds of plantations that could help to increase the immune in body.

“We (ministry of agriculture) are not in the medicine production yet because we have no authority to do clinical test that the doctors should do,” she said.

“To increase the fitness of the body, Evi continued, the people are suggested to consume the herb potion and powder of the process once a day. The healthy life style could be simply done by boiling the herbs.

“It could be done by rubbing, flailing the herbs (not into pieces) and then pouring them by hot water. It could be instantly drunk. In general it needs sugar but should not be much because it could make diabetes. If it is in capsule, just follow the instruction in the pack,” she said.

She continued, Balittro has some superior herbs and provided the seeds and the cultivation to herbs and medicine plantations. “We have produced superior red ginger, emprit ginger, turmeric,, curcuma, galangal, nutmeg, pepper, clove, and cinnamon,” she said.

Sub head of Medical Plantation, General Directorate of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture, Wiwi Sutiwi said that consuming the herbs tends to increase this year because many people realize that it is important to stay fit by consuming the agricultural products.

“Particularly after the corona virus (Covid – 19) spread, it makes the people realize that it si important to consume the agricultural products for the health. In the late days, consuming ginger and herbs tends to increase drastically,” she said.

About this, she continued, the government would balance the increasing consumption by developing the herb and medical plantation regions, such as, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi.

“To balance the numbers of consumption, we would develop the regions to plant ginger, red jahe gajah, emprit ginger, and other herbs in many regions. The herb production should increase from 2019 which reached 173.888 tons only," Wiwi said. (A2)