APPLICATION OF NANOTECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

Herbal medicines are often used traditionally. Traditional medicine is an ingredient in the form of plant material, animal material, minerals, sarian (galenic) preparations, or mixtures of these ingredients which have been used for generations based on experience. The 2006 Traditional Medicines Policy Document (Kotranas) records that there are 30,000 species of plants identified in Indonesia, 7,500 of which are classified as medicinal plants and approximately 300 species have been used as traditional medicines by the traditional medicine industry. The diversity of types of medicinal plants in Indonesia, so that Indonesia is a potential center for the development of Traditional Medicines Raw Materials.

Traditional medicine has always played an important role in world health and continues to be used to treat various diseases. Traditional medicine is used in every country in the world, and becomes a top priority by supporting, promoting, maintaining and restoring human health. WHO recommends the use of traditional medicines including herbal medicines in the maintenance of public health, prevention and treatment of diseases, especially for chronic diseases, degenerative diseases and cancer. WHO support is beneficial for Indonesia in the development of traditional medicines, especially herbal-based traditional medicines. The results of the Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) in 2010 showed that 55.3% of the Indonesian population used traditional herbs (herbs) to maintain their health and 95.6% recognized the traditional herbs used were very beneficial for health.

The use of herbal medicines in Indonesia is still relatively low, this is caused by several factors including the community more inclined to use synthetic drugs because the drug reaction is faster, more practical and easy to obtain. While herbal medicines, the drug reaction is slow, impractical and difficult to obtain. According to Suprapta (2014) the benefits of using herbal medicines are that they have very low side effects, and do not cause resistance to pathogenic organisms. Besides that, with the increase in public awareness about the side effects of using synthetic drugs when used not according to the dose, such as the occurrence of resistance to the pathogens of cancer due to the decomposition of drugs that are too high on the body's organs. This can encourage to re-use herbal medicines.

Utilization of herbal medicines is increasing due to the low side effects and the presence of active compounds contained in herbal medicine preparations such as a group of terpenoids, alkaloids and phenols which are able to fight disease (Yadav, et al., 2011). The content of active compounds in herbal medicine preparations can enhance the body's immunity, such as the presence of vitamins and antioxidant compounds in herbal medicine preparations that can protect body cells from free radical attack. If the body's cells are healthy, they will be able to produce antibodies. Antibodies are autoimmune which function as the most effective weapon for the body to ward off diseases caused by viruses such as the corona virus that causes COVID-19 disease.

The problem faced in the development of herbal medicines is that the active substances contained in herbal medicine preparations are difficult to penetrate the cell membrane because the cell membrane is composed of layers of fat and protein. The membrane structure composed of fat and protein layers is very difficult to pass by large particles and low water solubility, so that the potential of active substances contained in herbal medicinal preparations cannot be utilized optimally by body cells (Nerves and Ajazuddin, 2010; Arif, 2015).

Nanotechnology is a technology that aims to develop the size of herbal medicine dosage forms with a size range of 10 nm-1000 nm (Aloys, et al., 2016). Nanotechnology is able to produce herbal medicine preparations with atomic and molecular scale sizes so that it can cause changes in the chemical, biological and catalytic activity of these drugs (Ansari, et al., 2012). The advantages of applying nanotechnology in making herbal preparations are 1). Can modify the surface characteristics and particle size of the drug so that herbal medicine can be targeted at all organs of the body. 2). The release of active compounds can be controlled so as to minimize side effects. 3). Nano-sized herbal medicines can be given in high concentrations because of their small size and high load capacity. 4). Nano-sized preparations can enter the bloodstream and can reach target cells and tissues (Dewandari, et al., 2013; Abirami, et al., 2015).

According to Ansari, et al., (2012), nanotechnology is recommended to be applied in the development of herbal medicine technology for various reasons, namely 1). There are side effects on the formula being marketed today. 2). Community non-compliance because the formulations available use large doses and are less effective. 3). The formulation does not have target specifications for various diseases. Besides that, by applying nanotechnology, bioavailability and absorption of active substances in herbal medicine preparations can be increased due to an increase in particle surface area and solubility. Herbal preparations in nano particle size have a longer residence time because they are absorbed by the intestinal mucosa (Dewandari, et al., 2013).