Page 68 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

CHAPTER 3

The Raw Ingredients of Jamu

DESPITE THE LARGE NUMBER OF PLANTS AVAILABLE, ONLY A

HANDFUL OF SPECIES ARE THE UNDISPUTED SUPERSTARS OF JAMU—
THEY ALL BELONG TO THE GINGER OR ZINGEBERACEAE FAMILY.

Of the 40,000 species of tropical plants in the world, an estimated 30,000 grow

in Indonesia. The archipelago is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.
To date, some 7,000 cultivated species have been identified. Close to 1,000 of
these are commonly used in the preparation of Indonesia’s traditional medicine,
although only 286 plants have been registered in the Materia Medika Indonesia
at the Department of Health.

This last figure reflects those species used by the major jamu producers,
who struggle to keep 200 essential ingredients in stock at any one time. Jamu
sellers working from home use up to 100 plants on an ad hoc basis, but focus on
only 10 or 12 when preparing their daily stocks. The balance of 700 to 800
plants is used by villagers for a vast range of formulæ that never appear in
official records. By contrast, the Ministry of Agriculture maintains that the
industry needs no more than 20 medicinal plants.

Over the centuries, Indonesians have experimented with their botanical
heritage in numerous ways. There is no doubt that huge number of medicinal
plants were selected for their effective healing powers; others may have been
used because of similarities between the characteristics of the plant and the
ailment, as dictated by the popular doctrine of signatures or similarities. This
suggests that the shape, colour or texture of each plant is a sign virtually telling
us what ailments it can cure. Thus, hair-like plants are supposed to make hair
grow, flowers with eyes give sharper vision, heart-shaped leaves cure heart
disease, red blooms are effective against bleeding, while orchids are excellent
aphrodisiacs.

Despite the large number of plants available, only a handful of species are
the undisputed superstars of jamu. They all belong to the ginger or
Zingiberaceae family: turmeric (kunir; curcuma domestica); greater galangal