T

he Mentawai Islands regency health agency in West Sumatra is to use traditional medicinal plants commonly used by sikerei (traditional healers) in the region to accompany modern medicines in community health centers (Puskesmas).

Agency head Lahmuddin Siregar said that the use of traditional herbs would be conducted through a scientific process under the supervision of the Traditional Medicine and Medicinal Plants Research and Development Center in Tawangmangu, Central Java, as well as medicinal plant experts from Andalas University.

'€œWe will start this month by sending a doctor for scientific herbal training in Tawangmangu,'€ Siregar said Tuesday.

He said the move would be followed by gathering sikerei for a workshop conducted to collect information from them, as well as provide field identification and training for herbal clinics'€™ management.

Siregar said he had a target of establishing a herbal clinic as a pilot project this year at the Puskesmas in Sioban, Sipora Island.

'€œWe have the target of having all 10 Puskesmas in Mentawai Islands having their own herbal clinics by 2016,'€ he said.

He said Mentawai had a competitive advantage in traditional herbal knowledge thanks to many sikerei as well as natural forests rich in varied plants.

Before modern medicine entered Mentawai, sikerei were people'€™s main source of medication as they did not have any other choice.

Even up until the present, rural communities on Siberut Island continue seeing sikerei, as well as going to Puskesmas or subdistrict health posts for health treatment.

This accounts for why sikerei have hundreds of potions to treat different illnesses, from snake bites to fever and contraception.

'€œSikerei normally involve magic rituals when doing the healing. Of course we will not use this, but will focus more on the plants they use,'€ Siregar said.

Sikerei can still be found practicing on Siberut Island but are no longer found on Pagai and Sipora islands as forests have decreased and people have become more open.

The regency administration wants to make Mentawai known for its herbs and traditional herbal medicine, to attract people to come to the regency for alternative medical treatment.

In 2000, Siregar said, Andalas University'€™s center for medicinal plant studies recorded 209 different medicinal plants used as traditional medicines by sikerei in Rokdok village, South Siberut.

Chairman of the center, Amri Bakhtiar, said that if everything went well, Mentawai would be the first regency on Sumatra island to run herbal clinics at a Puskesmas.

Mentawai, he said, was rich in medicinal plants that could be processed into scientific herbs.

In 2012 the center conducted research in four locations in West Sumatra, two of which were on Siberut Island. The research successfully collected 151 different medicinal plants and identified 135 plant taxonomy types used in 79 medicinal potions.