Page 65 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

adequate funding before it is too late.

The Moluccas
Ceram in Maluku has a reputation for magic, but the use of herbs is also
paramount, as a research team discovered in 1980 when they listed 30 species of

medicinal plants commonly used on Ceram. The remedies are made from the
indigenous leaves, roots and barks, and used for ailments ranging from cough,
diarrhoea, fever and backache, to wart removal, swelling, itchiness and bruises.
Here, as elsewhere in the Moluccas, all medicines are reserved for serious illness
and administered only when symptoms appear. This totally contrasts with the
Javanese concept of prevention, body maintenance and ongoing beauty care.

Until recently, the majority of modern, educated Moluccans chose Western
medicines, provided they were available and affordable; they resorted to folk
medicine only when Western methods did not produce results. Nowadays, many
islanders are deciding that synthetic ingredients in modern drugs often make
them feel worse instead of better. Western flu medicine, which can make a
patient sleepy, is an example, whereas alternative medicine for flu does not
produce unpleasant side effects. Moluccans are increasingly turning to
traditional methods. Gathering barks, roots and leaves is easy, and costs are low

because raw materials are picked from the garden or countryside. Making up
formulæ is not a chore either, as locals simply mix the leaves with oil or water,
then squeeze them into small round pills. The pills do not last long, as people
take the medicine until they feel better, then stop. Families in remote villages
favour these old-fashioned cures; for many, there is no alternative.
Unfortunately, much of the ancient healing knowledge has been lost.