Abstract

The study to explore the marketed natural products had been carried out at the beginning of 1997. There were 24 natural products that were sold at 5 retail pharmacies at 5 areas in Jakarta had been analyzed. The descriptive analysis was carried out mostly based on the informations of its package inserts and labels. The qualitative's analysis of the informations had been focused on the written claim indications, the empirical efficacy as well as its safety, longterm side effects in particular. The 24 products being studied had been registered as drugs : 42% (D/DBL/DL, 10 products), registered as food supplement : 4% (ML, 1 product) and traditional medicine : 54% (TR/TL, 13 products). Most of the products are mixtures of several medicinal herbs, plant extracts and chemicals, ranging between 1-8 item in each product. About 45% of these products were delivered to the consumers based on physcian's prescription and most of them were registered as TL (registration code for imported traditional medicines). The order products are sold as OTC (over the counter drugs) with very limited information of safety, particularly the longterm usage. Although the products have already been marketed, it should be used cautiously since it bears several unclear information, particularly on the compound's efficacy, safety, and the longterm side effects. In order to establish the efficacy of the compounds and to avoid the unpredicted side effects, further extensive studies, - especially for the prescribed products, should be carried out.