Page 53 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

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 minyak • oil
an elder man
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

jamu gendong • jamu seller toko • shop

Choosing and Drinking Jamu
Whatever one’s needs, jamu can almost certainly supply an answer, but it may
require experimentation to find the right manufacturer. Pegal Linu, for instance,
concocted by one manufacturer to counteract rheumatism and tiredness, may

make no difference to symptoms, whilst the same medicine produced by another
company could bring instant relief. Experimentation with products from
different companies is often necessary. Furthermore, manufacturers warn that
jamu works slowly, on the basis of the body’s self-healing capabilities, and it
may take up to two months before results are noticed.
Then there is the problem of how to take the potion. Jamu is steeped in