Page 42 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

taken alongside a course of traditional massage to speed up the healing process.

Who Uses Jamu?
Practically every Javanese wo man and many Javanese men use jamu on a
regular basis. Jamu is recommended for anything from making skin soft and

glowing, to producing a tight vagina. It removes body odour—ask for a
deodorant in Java and you are likely to be handed herbal pills. There is jamu for
“ensuring harmonious marriage” and one to enhance any number of female
charms. A woman is advised to drink Jamu Kamajaya-Kamaratih (‘God of
Love–Goddess of Love’) before marriage in order to “become a housewife loved
by her husband”. Judging by one copywriter’s claim for Jamu Indonesia
Simona’s Extra Super Venus, no woman should be without it. “It goes without
saying that every wife desires her husband’s love and attention. But she should
also know that every husband desires to see his wife looking fresh, neat,
vivacious, healthy, charming and fascinating, even though blessed with many
children. If she knows the secret she will not put off taking Extra Super Venus
from this moment!”

But not only women swear by jamu: men also worry about their looks and

libido, and jamu is widely used to enhance male virility. Indonesian men may
well have been amused by the intense publicity given to Viagra, the 1998
‘wonder drug’ for impotence; they’ve had their own such remedies for
generations. The number of men who queue for their daily dose of Jamu Laki
Laki (the ‘Man’s Medicine’, said to keep a man in peak condition) make it one
of the most popular drinks. There are pills that promise to “create new energy,