Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing. Susan-Jane Beers
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 deceptively easy to the newcomer, keen to experiment. First-timers would be advised to enlist the aid of either a jamu seller or a herbalist, or simply take the remedies rather than try to make them.
For instance, sugar is an important base ingredient in many healing recipes. Indonesian jamu is made from three types of sugar. gula batu (rock sugar; Saccharum officinarum) is refined white sugar. gula Jawa or gula merah (coconut sugar; cocos nucifera) is made from the sap of young coconut trees and cooked at high temperatures to produce its brown colour. The syrup is left to cool and harden in empty coconut shells and assumes the discus-like shape. The third variety, gula Aren (palm sugar), is the queen of sugars, made from the pure sap of a young Aren tree (Arenga pinnata). Its colour changes from white to brown during cooking and the solid sugar is shaped into small cylinders before it reaches shops and market stalls. This sugar is the most expensive of the three, but many women refuse to settle for anything less, for they say the cheaper types of sugar affect the taste and quality of their jamu. This criticism is sometimes levelled at jamu gendong (herbal tonic street sellers) who often substitute a factory-made synthetic similar to saccharin, which is said to cause coughs.
More problems may arise for the jamu novice with the simplification of common names in Indonesia. For example, the ingredients manis jangan, kayu manis and kayu legi all translate into English as ‘sweet wood’ but each is different botanically. Kayu manis (cinnamomum zeylanicum) and manis jangan (cinnamomum burmanii) are respectively the Indonesian and Javanese names for the sweet-tasting wood we know in the West as cinnamon: both are used in jamu. However, kayu legi is Javanese for a sweet bark that has no flavour, is brown outside, white in the centre and is used for general cooking (Chinese liquorice; glycyrrhiza glabra).
Fresh Jamu
Many Indonesians will drink jamu only in the form of finely chopped herbs, or powder mixed with water, because these are deemed closest to the natural herbal state and therefore more effective. For these adepts, traditional medicine in a pre-packed, ready-to-swallow form holds no attraction. They put up with the inconvenience of making these mixtures and accept their often bitter, unpalatable taste. The reluctant jamu taker will find that adding a pinch of salt to the glass lessens the shock to the tastebuds. A slice of lemon or a little honey is also recommended. Sieving the jamu through muslin gets rid of the indigestible, floating remains. A seasoned jamu drinker will down a glass in one, which reduces exposure to the, frankly, often disgusting taste. Eating a piece of fruit, especially a banana or papaya, is suggested to remove the aftertaste. Fresh and natural are the key words in these preparations.
Commercial growth, however, has meant these old ways are not always practical, especially for city dwellers. To meet the demands of the urban market, larger producers process over 700 tons of ingredients into jamu pills and capsules each month. Modern manufacturing methods enable factories to produce sufficient quantities to make export a possibility. And while reluctance by the old school to share health and beauty secrets with outsiders hampered the industry in its infancy, this problem has now been overcome by the pressures of an expanding economy. The lure of overseas markets is proving stronger than the mysticism that once surrounded jamu. If the end product has a longer shelf life, the horizons for export are limitless.
A GLOSSARY OF COMMON INDONESIAN TERMS
| air • water | kampung • village |
| arang • charcoal | kraton • palace |
| Bapak (or Pak) • polite form of address for an elder man | minyak • oil |
| nasi • cooked rice | |
| daun • leaf | obat • medicine |
| dukun • healer/traditional doctor | pasar • market |
| gula • sugar | pisang • banana |
| Ibu (or Bu) • polite form of address for a woman | pilis • compress |