Page 28 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

healer spread rapidly, so it was perhaps not surprising that she decided to publish her findings.

The Pictorial Atlas, as its name suggests, pictorially and textually describes the principal
common plants that Mrs Kloppenburg used in her recipes. Indigenous Plants and their Healing
Powers taught people how to prepare the herbs, and make the remedies. It was first published by
Masman and Stroink in 1907, and was reprinted for several decades, with the last edition appearing
in the late 1980s in Bahasa Indonesia.

Serat centhini was copied and revised so often no one knows which edition
is the original. Some versions are dated 1742 in the Javanese calendar, which
equates with 1814 in a Western calendar, but experts say much of the material
dates from centuries earlier. Although the work covered every imaginable
subject, much of Serat Centhini is concerned with sexual problems and includes
copious advice on a variety of ailments as well as a number of remedies. Much
of its style is fairly earthy and at times it resembles a series of fairy tales.

Yet, despite its basic approach, Serat centhini gives one of the best accounts
of medical treatment in ancient Java. In nearly every instance, the remedies are
taken from nature and many are easy to administer. Spots on the skin could be
cleared up with a preparation of what was termed pucung paste which was made
from the fruit of the kluwak tree (pangium edule) mixed with urip (euphorbia
tirucalli; milk bush or finger tree) and widuri (calotropis gigantea; mudar plant)
which had to be boiled up with the fruit. It was applied to spots while warm and

was not to be removed for at least one day. The instructions suggest finishing the
cure by grinding elung ubi jalar (the young leaves of sweet potato or Ipomoea
batatas) with powdered lime and rubbing this mixture onto the affected area.