Medicinal herbs Garden, Medicinal plant garden in TMII, East Jakarta, Indonesia

The Medicinal Herbs Garden (Taman Apotek Hidup) is a 6,000 m² garden in the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah complex in East Jakarta holding about 400 kinds of Indonesian medicinal plants. Its beds mix rare species such as kayu rapet and kedawung, newly studied plants such as telosom, and household remedies like turmeric, ginger and cat's whiskers, laid out like a home yard with fences, a small pond and a gazebo.

The garden continues the medicinal-plant work of a USAID plantation at Jonggol, Bogor, established in 1971, where more than a hundred thousand Indonesian plant species were studied. Based on that research, Ibu Tien Soeharto initiated the garden with PT Air Mancur, and it opened to the public on 20 April 1984.

The collection reflects healing plant traditions that many Indonesian households maintain to treat various conditions from injuries to tropical illnesses. The way plants are organized here shows how these remedies remain woven into everyday life for local people.

Visitors can join educational sessions about plant processing methods and take part in workshops that demonstrate how traditional remedies are prepared. It helps to check ahead of time when these activities are offered.

The garden's name comes from the home-yard apotek hidup model, in which flower beds are replaced by medicinal plants; here even a palm trunk serves to hang used mineral-water bottles as pots for kencur, krokot and celery. The plot holds about 400 species, with only three to five plants per kind.