Page 57 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

not possess a grinding stone, the jamu maker had to decide whether it was

appropriate to make the jamu in his or her own home before delivering it to the
client. It was also considered part of the cure for the jamu maker to give the
jamu directly to the recipient. If it was a paste, the maker would clean the
grinding stone with her hands, and then rub a little of the mixture onto the
patient’s skin. If the medicine was to be drunk, the jamu maker would put a little
of the ground mixture into the glass of jamu with her fingers before the patient
was allowed to take it.

Government Regulations
In the interests of safety, the government advises that only those brands of jamu
carrying the Indonesian Food and Drug Control Directorate (the DepKes RI
number) on the packet should be consumed. (DepKes is the acronym for the
Departemen Kesehatan, the Department of Health and RI stands for Republic of
Indonesia.) These registration numbers (issued also by the Departemen
Kesehatan) must, by law, be printed on every bottle or packet. The number is
issued only after the product has been tested by government laboratories and met
a stringent set of requirements. If the name or formula of the jamu changes after
registration the whole process must be repeated.

The Department of Health regularly buys herbal medicine from retail
outlets to verify that products are not sold after their expiry date and then
submits these samples for testing by its team of pharmacists to ensure standards
of quality control and storage conditions have been met. Some smaller