Page 50 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

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