The pharmaceutical and food sectors, regulated by the Indonesian FDA, also known as Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan (BPOM), contributed 8.3% to Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023.
The ministry hopes to support further national GDP growth by promoting local botanical products, including health supplements, Professor Taruna Ikrar, head of BPOM, told NutraIngredients. As a whole, Indonesia has set a target of 8% GDP growth by the year 2028-2029.
Indonesia’s Jamu heritage, which has seen a revival in the form of lifestyle cafe drinks, is an area that Professor Taruna hopes to focus on.
Jamu is a form of herbal medicine and treatment that has been practised in Indonesia since the eighth century and has been recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2023. An example of a Jamu formula is Kunyit Asa, a Jamu drink made from turmeric, tamarind and palm sugar.
“When people talk about red ginseng, they think of South Korea. When people talk about sushi, they think of Japan and for traditional Chinese medicine, they think of China. One day, I want people to think of Indonesia when they talk about Jamu,” said Professor Taruna. “Our target is not only the Indonesian national market alone, but the global market as well.”
Other examples of products made using local botanicals include gummies made from moringa leaves and red dragon fruit peel, body scrubs made from frangipani flowers, and cinnamon cookies, which BPOM believes exemplify the potential for developing more and higher-quality natural-based products.
“BPOM’s launch of BRIDGE at Hari Jamu Nasional (National Herbal Medicine Day) signals a commitment not only to promote Jamu as a cultural heritage, but to push for evidence-based development of traditional medicine in line with the growing World Health Organization’s recognition of traditional medicine. This programmatic commitment provides a more stable long-term regulatory direction for SMEs to plan against.”
Helping the MSMEs
The ministry has therefore launched BRIDGE - also known as Synergy in Globally Competitive Innovative Research and Market Expansion - to increase the quality of local herbal products, especially those manufactured by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Currently, there are around 4.2 million MSMEs in the local herbal and botanical sector. In Indonesia, a business is considered a micro enterprise if it has a capital of Rp 1 billion (US$55k), between Rp 1 billion to Rp 5 billion (US$277k) for small enterprises and between Rp 5 billion to Rp 10 billion (US$555k) for medium-sized enterprises.
These companies, including those selling jamu gendong (traditional herbal medicine) door-to-door, are considered to have significant opportunities to advance through innovative business models.
According to BPOM, MSMEs contribute to 60.51% of GDP and account for 97% of total employment.
To date, approximately 60,000 MSMEs have been registered. Most of them are concentrated in Jakarta and remain significantly below the national target of 1.7 million MSMEs.
A challenge MSMEs typically face is tight capital, which limits their access to advanced analytical equipment, new scientific research and raw material standardization.
To which, BPOM has launched the Pustaka Bahan Aktif Obat Bahan Alam (PUSAKA) reference book as a compendium of active substances. This is meant to reduce research burden and provide a shared scientific foundation, lowering the cost of evidence generation for product registration.
On the other hand, many MSMEs remain stuck in the early stages of Good Traditional Medicine Manufacturing Practices or Cara Pembuatan Obat Tradisional yang Baik implementation.
At the same time, there is a shortage of qualified pharmaceutical personnel who are willing to work in small-scale traditional medicine businesses.
Since BPOM prohibits disease claims for traditional medicines and supplements, BRIDGE, by accelerating the pathway from Jamu to Standardized Herbal Medicine or Obat Herbal Terstandar (OHT) to Phytopharmaceutical or Fitofarmaka, can give MSMEs a scientific route to products that can legitimately carry stronger, evidence-based health claims and ultimately be integrated into hospital formularies and national health insurance.
“We hope that our local industry can develop well, especially the macro, small and even medium-sized enterprises, as they form a part of the national economy,” said Professor Taruna.
Through BRIDGE, businesses seeking product innovation can be connected with researchers and can apply new research discoveries to competitive commercial products.
“The persistent gap between laboratory research findings and industry needs was a strong impetus for the launch of BRIDGE. This gap often leads to the development of natural medicine products stalling at the scientific level or academic reports, without the potential for development into commercially valuable products,” said BPOM in a press release.
BRIDGE has also gained support from eight industry associations, including the Herbal Medicine Entrepreneurs Association (GP Jamu), the Indonesian Health Supplement Entrepreneurs Association (APSKI) and the Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers Association (GAPMMI). These associations are expected to encourage their members to utilize the research results available on BRIDGE.
Taking part in BRIDGE
Businesses, researchers and the public can access BRIDGE on BPOM’s Directorate of Traditional Medicine, Health Supplement, and Cosmetic Registration website, as well as eight business association websites, including that of APSKI, GAPMMI, Gabungan Pengusaha Jamu (GP Jamu) and Asosiasi Industri Ekstrak Bahan Alam Dan Rempah Indonesia (Airindo).
To take part, researchers will need to provide information on their innovations on BRIDGE, which will then be reviewed and selected by BPOM.
To qualify, the innovation proposed should be a formula in a finished form, including capsules, tablets, internal liquids, external liquids, creams, food products or food additives. It should not contain prohibited substances or dosage forms prohibited by local regulations and use additional ingredients permitted by regulations.
Most importantly, the innovation proposed does not have an industrial partner yet.
Only research proposals that have passed BPOM’s screening will be featured publicly on BRIDGE.
After which, businesses can select innovative products that have passed BPOM’s screening process. Once the businesses and the researcher have entered into a cooperation agreement, the product registration process with BPOM will be carried out in accordance with the prevailing regulatory requirements.
Rich botanical resources
Approximately 31,000 plant species grow throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
Of these, thousands have been used as raw materials for traditional medicines and health products.
As of 2026, around 21 phytopharmaceutical products are registered, alongside 19,000 Jamu and 70 standardized herbal medicines, which BPOM said reflected the need to strengthen globally competitive, scientifically validated domestic products.
“We really have a lot of potential from natural resources and as a leader of the Indonesian FDA, I want to develop this resource of ours,” said Professor Taruna.
Citing a study published in Nature in September 2022, Professor Taruna said that the Jamu system could be dated back to 31,000 years ago. The study, based on the discovery of skeletal remains of a young individual from Borneo, suggests that at least some modern human foraging groups in tropical Asia had developed sophisticated medical knowledge and skills long before the Neolithic farming transition.
