January 27, 2024.
UI inaugurated three professors from the Faculty of Medicine, chaired by UI Chancellor Prof. Ari Kuncoro. One of them is Prof. Dr. dr. Siti Farida, M.Kes., Ph.D., professor in Medical Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine UI. At her inauguration, Prof. Siti Farida delivered a speech “The Role of Exercise, a Balanced Diet, and Providing Natural Ingredients in Pregnancy to Prevent the Risk of Stunting: Early Life Programming”.
She explained that stunting is not only related to the physical problem of height, but is also related to intellectual development, the emergence of chronic diseases, and low productivity which will affect the quality of the next generation. Based on 2018 Basic Health Research data, the prevalence of stunting was 30.8. This figure is still far from the prevalence rate targeted in the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan of 14%.
Prof. Siti Farida said that stunting is related to inappropriate environmental exposure during the development of the embryo in the womb (early life programming) until postnatal lactation. Inappropriate environmental exposure is caused by inadequate maternal dietary intake or the environment around the fetus experiencing oxidative stress, alcohol, smoking, psychological conditions, maternal comorbid diseases (such as obesity and diabetes), and lack of physical activity during pregnancy. This contributes to the probability of developing several diseases in childhood and adulthood, such as cardiovascular, metabolic, and endocrine diseases.
Furthermore, pregnant women are recommended to exercise regularly because it can increase the body’s natural antioxidants and prevent oxidative stress during pregnancy. This can provide a good environment for the growth and development of the fetus and reduce the risk of stunting in children.
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy and child nutrition during lactation are also very important for the child’s programming and development as an adult. Therefore, it is important to spread information regarding the need for balanced nutrition in the first 1000 days of a child’s life, starting from a balanced mother’s diet and fulfilling the nutritional needs during pregnancy and the child’s lactation until age 2.
Provision of natural herbal ingredients with high vitamins and iron can be given as a complement in vegetables, food preparations, or nanoparticle extracts to fulfill nutritional needs in the first 1000 days of life. Herbal natural ingredients contain antioxidant phytochemical compounds to prevent oxidative stress in the body. One of the natural herbal ingredients that has widely become an object of research to overcome stunting is Moringa leaves. Moringa leaves have quite high nutrition compared to other vegetables. The vitamin A in Moringa leaves is 10 times of carrots, 17 times the calcium of milk, half the vitamin C of oranges, 25 times the iron of spinach, 9 times the protein of yogurt, and more carotenoids than oranges, carrots, and melons.
Considering the impact of stunting, Prof. Siti Farida said that reducing the risk of stunting must be carried out thoroughly. We must continue to strive to improve the quality of parenting patterns, support the provision of balanced nutrition by providing a variety of foods in the first 1000 days, education on clean, healthy living behavior, adequate psychosocial stimulation of children, health monitoring, and convenience access to health services. Moreover, pregnant mothers also need to be encouraged to do physical activity that suits their needs.
Research related to a similar topic has also been carried out by Prof. Siti Farida and published in various national and international journals. Some of them are entitled In vitro study on antidiabetic and antihypertensive activities of ethanolic extract of propolis of Indonesian stingless bee Tetragonula sapiens (2023); The effects of simvastatin- Acalypha indica Linn. combination on the improvement of fatty pancreas in rats induced with a high fructose and cholesterol diet (2022); The Administration Centella asiatica Ethanol Extract Increases AMPAR-GluR1 Expression in CA1 Region Hippocampus Male Wistar Rat (2022); and Safety evaluation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in naive rats: a chronic toxicity study (2022).
Prof. Siti Farida completed her medical education at the Faculty of Medicine, Airlangga University in 1989; her master’s in Reproductive Health in 2001 at the same campus; and obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree at Faculty of Medicine UI in 2015 and received a Ph.D. Universite Grenoble Alpes Chimie et Sciences du Vivant, France in 2016. The inauguration was attended by the Chancellor of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University, Banten, Prof. Dr. dr. H. Fatah Sulaiman, ST. M.T.; Director of Kuningan Eye Center, Dr. Ahmad Budi Utomo, Sp.M.; Director of Premier Consult Indonesia Rizal Suryanzah, SE, MM, Ak, CA; and Managing Director of PT. Phytochemindo Mutual Patrick A Kalona.
