Page 49 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

natural ingredients such as vitamins A, C and E, all of which contribute to

overall well-being. Indeed many of the barks, leaves, roots, stems, flowers, seeds
and minerals used come straight from the country’s tropical rainforests, where
there is no pollution or pesticides and hence are at their purest and most potent.

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