Page 92 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

powder. Powdered rice, consisting mainly of rice starch or bedak, the base for

Indonesian cosmetics, is coloured and prescribed as a magic cure for sickness.
The shade changes with the time of day: “white in the morning, red at midday
and black at sundown”.
At one time, combining rice starch with pepper was a remedy for ‘gouty
twinges’ in the hands and feet, as noted by the scientist Isaac Henry Burkill who
held the position of Director of Singapore’s Botanic Gardens in the early 1900s.
Cloth was also saturated in a mixture of glutinous rice boiled with medicinal
plants or roots. The result was a dressing similar to Elastoplast or Band-Aid.
Dust left over from rice pounding went into poultices and was an excellent body
rub. Lye, a powerful cleanser made from the ash of burned rice straw, was used
to wash hair. After cooking the family meal, Javanese housewives still save rice

water to use as a face or eye lotion.
In Java, finely-powdered rice flour is put through a lengthy fermenting
process involving yeast, fungus, medicinal plants and roots such as ginger, garlic
or cinnamon. It is then dried into small, round cakes that are used as the catalyst
or yeast in the production of a potent, alcoholic drink.

Green Power
Kangkung (water convolvulus; Ipomoea aquatica), a green, leafy, water spinach
beloved by Indonesians, is as important to an Indonesian menu as potatoes are in
the West. It flourishes in wet, humid conditions and its pink, white and lilac
flowers are often seen floating in rice paddies. Kangkung is awash with healthy
minerals and vitamins. Leaf tips are eaten in salads, but more often the whole

kangkung is cooked and served with main dishes. It acts as a laxative and is
recommended for piles, insomnia and headaches caused by nervousness;
applying its leaves to the skin can draw out the venom from snake bites and
pounded leaves are used to treat boils. The root provides a wash for
haemorrhoids and is also good for white discharge, gum problems and cold
sweats.
Chillies of every persuasion (capsicum sp.) are found in every kitchen in
Indonesia. Roughly eight kinds are regularly used in Indonesian dishes, the most
popular being the finger-length red or green chilli (cabe besar) and the tiny, fiery
bird’s-eye chilli (cabe rawit). cabe besar is used to reduce fevers and

hypertension, and treat headaches, abdominal pains, beriberi, flu, cholera,
impotence, toothache and diarrhoea; it encourages perspiration and destroys
parasites. The root of cabe rawit is recommended for gonorrhoea and, amazingly
in a tropical climate, frostbite. In Kalimantan, chilli is put into arrow poison as