Dangerous Jamu

Male Vitality Supplement is the best selling product in Jakarta and vicinity, this can be seen from the fact that there are many advertisement of those products on the streets. Among them, are products categorized as Chemical Medicines like Viagra, Cialis etc. Besides, there are also products categorized as Traditional Medicine like Blue Moon, Tripoten, etc.

The producers of both category of products are competing to grab market share for their products. Each of them claiming their advantage compared to the other. The Traditional ones are very popular because the producer claimed that they only contain Traditional Ingredients such as Herbs, and do not contain Chemical Elements. And they are Freely sold at cheaper prices compared to the Chemical ones.
For many years, no one ever contradict the Chemical Free claim of the Traditional products. Then last Friday 14 November 2008, Media Konsumen reported announcement of the Board for Supervision of Medicines, Food and Beverage (BPOM) regarding the cancellation of registration of 22 brands of Male Vitality Supplement products. According to BPOM Chairman i.e Husniah Rubiana, the Traditional products contains Chemical elements i.e. Sildenafil Sirat and Tadalafil which would be Hazardous if mixed with Traditional elements. The 22 Traditional Supplements are :
1) TRIPOTEN, produced by PT Dexa Medica
2) BLUE MOON, produced by PT Pacific Healthcare Indonesia
3) CALIGULA KAPSUL, produced by PJ Air Madu
4) COBRA X CAPSUL, produced by PJ Ragil Sentosa
5) HWANG DI SHEN DAN, produced by Ruifeng Phamaceutical
6) KUAT TAHAN LAMA SERBUK, produced by PD Jamu Moro Sehat
7) LAK GAO 69, produced by PJ Jaya Sakti Mandiri
8) LAVARIA, produced by PT Rama Farma
9) MACCA GOLD, produced by PT Paramitra Media Perkasa
10) MANOVEL, produced by PT Sari Sehat
11) OKURA, produced by PT Herbalindo Sukses Makmur
12) OTOT MADU, produced by PT Rama Farma
13) RAMA STAMIN, produced by PT Rama Farma
14) SANOMALE, produced by PT Prydam Farma
15) SARI MADU CAPSUL, produced by PJ Sari Madu Murni
16) STANSON, produced by PT Rajawali Sukses
17) SUNNY ZANG WANG ZION YING DAN PILL, by PT Cahaya
18) SUNNY ZANG WANG ZION YING DAN CAPSUL
19) TERAZA, produced by PT Rama Farma
20) TOP ONE CAPSUL, produced by PT Taladipa
21) URAT PERKASA KAPSUL, produced by PT SM Jaya
22) ZU MEX, produced by CV Mega Maju Mekar
Husniah Rubiana gave an example that TRIPOTEN contains TADALAFIL which is a Chemical Element used in the Chemical Medicine CIALIS. Usage of which could cause body pains and even permanent loss of sex potential.

The above announcement is very surprising because all the Products bear Registration Numbers issued by BPOM and have been circulating in our market for a long time. Some of them are popularly known by people as VERY SAFE to use, such as BLUE MOON. Of course as normal persons, the people in BPOM can always make mistake when they issued the Registration Numbers. But 22 mistakes going on and on for a long time is very difficult to understand. Moreover, this announcement would mean that production of the products should be stopped and many workers should stop working, thus another Labor problem for the government to handle.
Let us hope that in the future BPOM would always be very careful whenever they want to grant registration for Medicines, Food & Beverage products.

Image:BigFoto