In 1990, Irish journalist Susan Jane-Beers noticed an herbal-medicine
clinic in the corner of a hair salon in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, her
adopted home. A victim of age-related chronic knee pain that conventional
pharmaceuticals couldn't numb, let alone heal, Jane-Beers decided to try jamu — traditional Indonesian medicine.
The results astounded her. After three days of taking only one-third of the
prescribed dose of herbal pills, the pain had vanished, making her wonder if
she'd found "the magic bullet of all time."
Jane-Beers spent the next decade researching the origins, myths, tightly
guarded recipes and commercial applications of herbal medicine in Java, where
plants have been used for medicinal purposes since prehistory. Her 2001 opus Jamu:
The Ancient Art of Herbal Healing remains the only definitive English
guide on the subject. It's also the most widely read outside Indonesia since Herbarium Amboinense, a catalog of plants completed by
German botanist Georg Rumphius in 1690 — more than three centuries earlier.
A holistic therapy based on the notion that if disease comes from nature,
then so must the cure, jamu uses a
dazzling array of teas, tonics, pills, creams and powders to cure — or prevent
— every ailment imaginable. The ingredients are by definition cheap, widely
available and simple: nutmeg to treat insomnia, guava for diarrhea, lime to
promote weight loss and basil to counter body odor.
Jamu has also been used to treat cancer.
In her book, Jane-Beers writes of a traditional healer in the city of
Jogjakarta who apparently cured what had been diagnosed as a terminal case of
cervical cancer with a tea made of betel nut, Madagascar Periwinkle and mysterious benala leaves. By combining the tea with a strict
soybean diet, the patient was said to have made a full recovery in 18 months.
Sound far-fetched? A 2011 study by Virginia Tech's Department of Food
Science and Technology on the soursop tree — whose leaves are used to relieve
gout and arthritis in Indonesia — found evidence showing that extracts from
soursop fruit inhibit the growth of human breast cancer. Vincristine, one of 70
useful alkaloids identified in Madagascar Periwinkle, radically ups the survival
rate of children with leukemia, while turmeric is being looked at as a
treatment for Alzheimer's.
"Western medicine tries to destroy cancer, but at the same time it
destroys elements of the body. Jamu helps the
body produce its own antibodies to fight the cancer by itself," says Bryan
Hoare, manager at MesaStila, a wellness retreat in central Java that serves jamu shots with breakfast and employs a tabib, or indigenous healer, for private consultations.
"Coming from the earth, jamu also makes
you feel good. When you take it you experience a positive feeling."
But if jamu is the magic bullet, why
isn't it better known in the West, where natural Asian medicines like India's
ayurvedic system and Chinese herbal healing have been growing in popularity for
years?
The answer can be found on the streets of Indonesia, where jamu is consumed regularly by 49% of the
population, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Valued at $2.7
billion annually, the industry covers an incredibly wide gamut of products and
regimens, including homemade tonics sold by street hawkers, slimming powders,
cosmetics and jamu for babies and postnatal
care. Yet the best sellers in terms of value are invariably the dodgiest: those
claiming to boost sexual performance or suppress appetite.
"Indonesians may well have been amused when Viagra was released in
1998," Jane-Beers says, noting the popularity of brands like Kuat Lekali
(Strong Man), Kuku Bima (Nail of God) and Super Biul Erection Oil. "They
have had their own remedies for years."
Then there's the association between jamu and white
magic. Many indigenous healers insist on dispensing jamu on auspicious dates or in conjunction with
animist spells that predate the arrival of Islam in the archipelago.
Mbah Ngatrulin, a Buddhist tabib I met in
Ngadas, the highest village in Java, told me that spells are the key and that jamu may as well be "mineral water."
It's the kind of comment that prevents many physicians across Southeast Asia
from endorsing jamu lest patients take them
for quacks.
According to Charles Saerang, head of the Indonesian Jamu Entrepreneurs
Association, the primary impediment to a worldwide jamu craze is that locally produced jamu products don't meet international
manufacturing standards. That hasn't stopped entrepreneurs from buying raw
herbal materials in Indonesia, processing them in India and Malaysia and
selling them in the U.K. — a market Indonesian-made jamuproducts can't access. That's a double whammy for
Indonesia, which loses out on value added by third parties and the chance to
promote the jamu brand name abroad.
It's impossible to say when, or even if, jamu painkillers
will be stocked at supermarkets and convenience stores in countries like the
U.K. Yet inroads are already being made by small businesses like the Origin Spa
in Melbourne. There, highly skilled practitioners apply massage techniques
developed by 16th century Indonesian royalty — the founders of modern jamu — using creams and oils containing turmeric,
betel leaves and crushed eggshells. There's a minimum two-month waiting list
for Origin's five-day post-pregnancy treatment that is said to help women
regain their figures quickly, improve lactation and dispel wind, dizziness and
aches and pains.
"It's surprisingly popular with the Asian mums throughout
Australia," says partner Jessica Koh. "But it's still unfamiliar to
most of the locals."
Comment:
As an Indonesians i’m so proud of the fact that Jamu known
enough of foreign people. Jamu is original herbal medicine from indonesia.
Natural ingredients in Jamu make people interested to consume jamu, whether to
keep their healthy or cure the desease. Unfortunately, herbal medicine (Jamu)
from Indonesia not been processed to International standards, so that many
entrepreneurs take herbal ingredients to make Jamu and process the ingredients
in another country such as india or malaysia. It is make jamu from indonesia to
lose the added value and opportunities to promote local herbal products to
overseas. In my opinion ,entrepreneurs in Indonesia should begin to look to the
business of jamu and process them with international standards so that later
the local herbal products can be marketed overseas. There are many herbal
plants from indonesia, so we have to patent these herbal ingredients so as not
to be recognized by other countries.
Hello,
BalasHapusI have been searching for this information and finally found it. Thanks!
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