The herbal plant is one of the local wisdom aspects belonging to the Indonesian people. In Menggoran Helmet, Bleberan, Playen, Gunung Kidul, Special Region of Yogyakarta, various herbal plants are found.
In this area, people commonly planted various herbal plants. They plant it to fulfill their daily needs, essentially for the fulfillment of cooking spices.
"We have yields of herbal plants that are beyond expectation in this area. Ginger and turmeric are far more than enough for meeting the daily needs of each resident," said Dr. Dra. Winastuti Dwi Atmanto, MP on Monday (2/11) at the UGM Campus.
Winastuti Dwi Atmanto is a lecturer at the UGM Faculty of Forestry who guides the residents of Menggoran, Bleberan, Playen, Gunung Kidul, the fostered villages. She has long discovered the problem of the village of Menggoran in overproducing herbal plants.
The market's unsold excess production would be sold to middlemen. Unfortunately, the results of this sale in practice have a smaller impact on improving the people's economy.
"This is due to the price being more determined by market mechanisms, rather than the desires of the farmers themselves," he said.
Accordingly, one of the efforts to improve the economy of Menggoran, Bleberan, Playen, and Gunung Kidul is through further guidance. As a supervisor, Winastuti eventually collaborated with the Pharmacy Science Doctoral Study Program, UGM Faculty of Pharmacy, in conducting community service activities.
Through intense communication and synergy, the creation of the idea aims to improve the economy of the people of Memporan, Bleberan, Playen Gunung Kidul through medicinal plants. Several attempts to improve the economy by adding value to medicinal plants by packaging them in ready-to-serve drinks, such as instant ginger and instant turmeric.
Dr.rer.nat. Ronny Martien, M.Sc., as a Secretary of the Pharmacy Science Doctoral Study Program and program coordinator, revealed that the community should also feel engaged in this on-campus technology activity. Thus, the form of service activities organized is to incorporate technology.
Hopefully, this appropriate technology can be effective in the middle of facing the Covid-19 pandemic. People are expected to convert herbal plants, usually marketed in unprocessed form, into well-packaged final products using technology.
"Absolutely, throughout this guidance from the campus, hopefully, the people of Playen Gunung Kidul can sell these herbal plants at a much better price with a long range-time," said Ronny.
In completing the service, on Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25, 2020, the activity also presented lectures, namely Prof. Dr. apt. Abdul Rohman, M.S., Professor of Analytical Chemistry as the chairman of the Pharmaceutical Science Doctoral Study Program, provided material on the Quality of Ready-to-Serve Products. Also, Dr. Djoko Santosa, M.Sc., a lecturer in the field of Pharmaceutical Biology who delivered material about Medicinal Plants and Their Processing Practices into good quality fast-drinks.
All these community service activities are recorded in documentary films. Hopefully, they can be broadcasted and used more widely by Indonesians who like to develop appropriate technology. In order to produce quality documentary films, this activity also presented the UGM Pharmacy Faculty Knowledge Channel Unit (KPF).
In this community service activity, counseling, and training, there were also grant various production items. They started from tools for the production process to tools for the packaging stage, such as high-quality plastic and two packaging sealer units.
Regarding this activity, some parties have agreed to a joint coaching commitment. In the future, the UGM Faculty of Pharmacy will continue to oversee this product's development to obtain certification, such as P-IRT and halal.
Purwanto, Dukuh Menggoran, Bleberan, Playen, Gunung Kidul, and Siti, as a coordinator of community members' representative field activities, feel grateful for the community service activities from the UGM Faculty of Pharmacy. Both of them could not hide their emotion because it helped the community produce and cultivate herbal plants.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Translator: Natasa A