Page 99 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

Coconut, perhaps the most widely used of tropical fruits, is renowned for
treating dysentery. Indonesians combine the old leaves of the cashew nut and
other ingredients to treat burns and skin diseases. The cashew nut, however, is
more usually seen as food rather than medicine.

To gauge what is meant by medicinal food in Indonesia, take a look at
familiar items used by cooks in Bali and Java. Given their availability, most of
us would not recognize them as curing, let alone know which parts to use or
what to do with them. For example red onions can be prescribed for anything
from fluid retention, sleeplessness and reducing fever in children, to treating
diabetes, helping menstruation problems, dysentery and colic. The universal
healer, garlic, is regarded as good for wind, water retention, reducing phlegm,
paralysis, hypertension and purifying the blood. White pepper apparently works

well as a contraceptive, relieves wind and water retention, stops vomiting and is
a remedy for leprosy and eczema. In Indonesia, there are thousands of recipes
and methods to prepare these healing foods. A detailed analysis would fill
volumes, particularly as many foods are recommended for the same ailment. For
example, papaya and pineapple are said to aid good digestion. Our purpose here
is to show that food contributes to good health, rather than to provide exhaustive
lists. And in Indonesia, as we see, the lines blur between healing foods, health-
giving foods and traditional medicine.

A HORTICULTURAL EXPERT

H. J. Abdul Talib (see opposite, bottom left) is a horticulturalist who specializes in growing plants