Green Souvenir, The Unique Herbal Plant Created by IPB University Students
Indonesia is a country rich with biodiversity, one of them are herbal plants. Herbal plants have benefits and are valued more, they are often used as alternative medications. However, The Indonesian community’s knowledge of the benefits of herbal plants continues to decrease. To solve this problem, five students of IPB University created a green souvenir in the form of a herbal plant seedling in order to increase the existence of these plants. Those five students were Deo Prastyo, Tri Widya Putri, Ainur Rahmah, Yoga Dwi Syahputra, and Muhammad Surya Fadhlurrohman. This green souvenir product is in the form of round herbal plant seedlings created by the team as an idea for the Creative Student Entrepreneurship Program (PKM-K) with the title “SEBAP” (Seed Bombs Herbal Plants): A Seedling-Based Green Souvenir Innovation In Increasing the Existence of Indonesian Herbal Plants.” This PKM-K was under the supervision of an IPB University lecturer, Muhammad Baihaqi, S.Pt, M.Sc.
“The idea was started from the many problems of barren lands of foreign countries and the community starting to re-green those lands by creating seedling balls. These seedling balls were purposed to protected the seedling so that it was not damaged or eaten by insects. Therefore, we tried to create a seedling ball filled with herbal plants to re-introduce herbal plants to the Indonesian community,” explained Deo as the team leader of team SEBAP. This Green souvenir designed by Team SEBAP consists of herbal plants such as acalypha indica (locally known as cat root), lemon basil, haleria macrocarpa (locally known as god’s crown), okra, java chilies, mustard greens, and sambiloto. The target of the green souvenir are parents who have children aging 7-15 years old and to university students. This is in order to educate the benefits of these herbal plants that can increase among the Indonesian community.
“Our product’s price range is around 6 thousand-12 thousand rupiahs, depending on the type of herbal plant seedling and the packaging. We provide two kinds of packaging which are small glass jars or patchwork. So far, we have sold our products on social media such as Line, WhatsApp, and Instagram at @obbombs.store,” Deo added.
The consumers who have bought green souvenir herbal plants can do further care. Starting from routine wearing twice a day until the seedling starts to grow. Then, the seedling must be moved to land and cared for until it is ready to harvest.
“We hope that the presence of the green souvenir product will inspire the community to develop and innovate products like this, and also support the back to nature movement,” Deo closed. (AVR)
