Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing. Susan-Jane Beers

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      The accusation that jamu is ‘not scientifically proven’ is still often made by the medical profession. Perhaps it is not proven in the same terms as we expect from Western medicine, but the results speak for themselves. The medical profession should note that without the benefit of expensive modern products, Javanese women are amazingly well preserved despite having given birth to large families. Unlike their Western counterparts, who often remain overweight after giving birth, Indonesian mothers soon regain their pre-pregnancy form. They take a course of jamu, after-birth massage and binding, and will use up to ten different jamu formulæ internally and externally for 40 days to cleanse the body, contract the muscles, lose weight, or—as instructions on one after-birth jamu pack state—“restore vigour and reinforce sex appeal”. Six weeks later, these women are back in pre-pregnancy shape. How many Western women can say the same after the birth of a child?

      As we have noted, the Indonesian Government has been instrumental in persuading the medical profession to consider jamu seriously and research the range of products. Among these professionals, there are many doctors, both Western and Indonesian-trained, who never go without their daily potion of jamu. Admitting it is another matter. Many consume herbal drinks in secret because they feel that endorsing jamu does not sit well with their image as modern, medical practitioners. Modern-thinking patients might lose faith in their doctor if they had the slightest notion he believed in jamu. There are doctors, however, that recognize the efficacy of traditional medicine and prescribe jamu herbs without disclosing that fact to their patients. These pills are not supplied by recognized jamu makers but made on prescription at the local pharmacy; these concoctions include popular and successful jamu ingredients (such as turmeric or ginger).

      Acceptance by Westerners

      Until recently, most Westerners have been cautious about using jamu. Some are afraid that medicines produced in a developing country may not be safe or hygienic. Up to now such details as methods, dosage and active ingredients have been irrelevant to villagers who have used jamu for centuries: jamu cures—that is all they need to know. But the producers of jamu want to go beyond the villages, and even beyond the borders of the country.

      Now that the government has imposed clinical trials and has set up research centres, it is believed that attitudes to traditional medicine will change. After all, any inexpensive system of medicine that purports to solve any problem, from curing arthritis or frigidity, hypertension or cancer, to improving fertility or regulating the appetite, improving the hair and helping a teenage girl adjust to puberty, is worth investigating on all levels. Jamu’s reputation has already turned it into an important export to the Netherlands, but figures have only touched on what is destined to become a vast industry. It is no accident that the herbs used in Indonesian preparations frequently form the basis of many Western medicines, and it is no coincidence that Anita Roddick, founder of Bodyshop, spent many years researching for her health and beauty products in Indonesia.

      Choosing Ingredients

      Traditionally Indonesian jamu was made on a daily basis by the women of the house. This was essential before refrigeration and the habit has stuck. The quality of the ingredients plays as important a part in producing effective jamu as their freshness. Even today, an Indonesian housewife may take a quick stroll round her garden to collect the extra jamu ingredients she cannot find in the market or the ones she needs in minuscule amounts. She believes home-made is best, insisting that many sellers cut cost by skimping on expensive, active ingredients like the rhizome of kencur (resurrection lily; Kaempferia galanga).

      Whether her recipes are passed down through the family or are derived from books, there is a degree of elasticity in all the formulæ and measuring ingredients can vary. Some recipes state the number of ons (equivalent to 100 g); another method is to state the amount in terms of ‘fingers, a thumb or a handful’; yet others state quantities by price (Rp 200 betel leaf, Rp 100 sugar and so on). This is fairly haphazard unless you know the price of herbs when the book was written, and particularly so since the drastic devaluation of the currency in 1997/98. However, most Indonesians are familiar with the vagaries of the terminology and have learned through experience.

      While the simplicity of jamu-making is often stressed—after all, what is easier than mixing up an effective cure from ingredients growing in the garden—it is, in reality, complex and has many pitfalls. Recipes and ingredients appear СКАЧАТЬ