Feeling sick? Reach for Tolak Angin—Indonesia's trusted herbal remedy for all kinds of sickness.

For over 60 years, it has been a go-to solution for many Indonesians, helping them get better, faster!

Today, Tolak Angin makes 200M sachets a month!

But it wasn’t easy to turn this small family business into a national brand. It took a lot of hard work before people took traditional herbal medicine seriously.

Let’s take a closer look at the story of how Tolak Angin became the trusted remedy it is today.

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🇮🇩 Humble beginnings

Tolak Angin’s story began in 1930 in the small town of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Rahmat Sulistio came from a family that believed in the healing power of plants. Even as a little girl, Rahmat would help her mother make herbal cures for friends and neighbors.

Life in those early days wasn’t easy. Indonesia was still under colonial rule. Not many people in Rahmat’s village had access to proper healthcare.

So people would often make medicines of their own. But in the city, people started to look down on herbal medicine. They thought modern medicine was safer and better.

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🌱 Staying focused

Still, Rahmat wanted to stay true to her roots. She spent years perfecting her herbal medicine, jamu. It was made with ginger, honey, peppermint, fennel, screw tree, and cloves.

She and her husband, Bapak Siem Thiam Hie, started selling her jamu at a stall in 1935.

In 1940, they decided to sell the jamu as a drink! This would make it easier for people to use when they needed to cure their colds or digest their food better.

Her formula became very popular–all of her neighbors started to buy it!

Rahmat wanted to bring her treatments outside her village.

But it took a lot of convincing for people to try it. Rahmat never gave up. She worked hard, going door-to-door, offering samples to anyone who would try it. Slowly, more people began to trust her herbal remedies.

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💡 Leap of faith

In 1951, Rahmat’s son, Irwan Hidayat, saw the potential for Tolak Angin to go big. The family called the business Sido Muncul, which means “wish come true.”

But their wishes didn’t come true so easily.

Each sachet of Tolak Angin was made by hand, with ingredients from local farms. The family ran the business out of their home! They didn’t have any big factories or fancy marketing campaigns.

But Irwan believed the product could help make people’s lives better. He worked tirelessly to get Tolak Angin into stores, traveling across Indonesia to convince shopkeepers to stock it on their shelves.

At times, it seemed like the dream might not come true.

But little by little, Tolak Angin’s popularity started to grow.

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🏆 Winning people over

The company opened their first factory in the 1970s.

More Indonesians started to use the brand to fight off any illness. Whether you were working long hours, feeling tired, or catching a cold, Tolak Angin was there to help!

Tolak Angin started advertising on TV, which brought the product into even more homes. The commercials showed people of all ages using Tolak Angin to stay healthy.

In the 2000s, Tolak Angin even got certified for Good Manufacturing Practice for Traditional Medicines (CPOTB) and Good Manufacturing Practice (CPOB).

This proved that traditional medicines like Tolak Angin really were safe to use!

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🌍 Growing beyond borders

While Tolak Angin is rooted in Indonesian tradition, it has now gone global.

The brand started exporting its products to other countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, and even the United States.

Still, their focus remains the same—using the power of nature to help people feel better.

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🌟 Here and now

Tolak Angin has come a long way from being run out of a family’s house in Yogyakarta.

What started as a simple family recipe has grown into a trusted remedy known around the world.

Now, they have other products like Vitamin C drinks and herbal rollers that are sold through 109 distributors in Indonesia. They even sell Tolak Angin candies!

We’re sure that if you could ask Rahmat and her son Irwan about how far they’ve come since the days they started, they’d call it a wish come true.