allows men to acquire up to four wives provided they can support them adequately. If a man isn’t wealthy (and 80 per cent of the population are not), he will often acquire additional wives before discovering his income cannot cope with the expense. Thus wives can become expendable. In the past, Islam made it relatively easy for men to obtain a divorce and the unlucky wives would be left without a breadwinner, usually with young families to support. Often, the husband simply disappeared to start afresh elsewhere.
Given these circumstances, it’s no wonder a wife works hard to hold her husband’s attention. Since many men, including Indonesians, usually favour younger girls, the chances of discarded, older wives finding other partners are severely limited. In the past, Indonesian women were raised to accept this situation and turn a blind eye if husbands strayed. This way of life often led to early marriage and informal divorce, and it is still common to find women who have had two or three husbands before the age of 30. With the onus on a wife to keep her man by whatever means, jamu is a formidable ally. For centuries, jamu was made almost exclusively by women, often for women; these specialized herbalists catered to their own female needs and focused the jamu on ways to retain youth and beauty. Indonesian custom dictates that female health and beauty are inextricably bound up with a woman’s role as wife and mother, which means sex is a key element in the equation. Naturally, jamu reflects these beliefs and is biased in favour of good health, beauty, marital harmony, sex and large families. Staying attractive was (and often still is) of economic as well as social importance.
TIPS FOR JAMU USERS
Straining the Brew Some jamu mixtures can leave a residue if not filtered. An example is jamu godok, or dried jamu. Instructions normally state that two glasses of water should be added to the dried roots and barks and the mixture boiled till the liquid reduces to one glassful. Then, it should be sieved before it is drunk.
Ibu Hennie’s mother had been cheerfully drinking this kind of jamu for years when she was diagnosed as having a gallstone. The doctor told her it was impossible to grind down raw ingredients finely enough in some jamu godok; consequently anyone drinking large quantities over a long period could face problems. Liquids pass out of the body whereas residue from the powdered leaves and bark in jamu godok remains in the system. In her case the residue had built up and eventually formed a stone.
Refreshing the Mixture for Good Results Home-made jamu can go bad if it’s left lying around too long. To ensure its safety, boil up the mixture again and let the powder sink to the bottom of the saucepan or glass before drinking it.
Like herbal medicine in other countries, jamu is used mainly as a preventative measure rather than as a cure. It is believed that the various herbs promote good health and purify the blood. Even though some people question their ability to cure, most have their favourite recipe.
Regulating the Industry
The fact that jamu has been empirically, not scientifically, proven has led Indonesian doctors, pharmacists and government health officials to advocate a more scientific approach to the manufacture and prescription of jamu. They insist that claims for herbal medicine must be verified using clinical trials. They also urge that tests must be based on sound pharmacological principles which examine the type, effectiveness, kinetic absorption, metabolism, excretion and the working mechanism of the product, as well as a medicine’s therapeutic use. Exhaustive scientific studies are necessary because no matter how natural their source, jamu medicines are still chemical substances which, doctors constantly remind us, “influence the life process”.
In 1981, the government set up eight designated herbal medicine testing centres for the development and application of traditional medicine in Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Bali. Their brief was the scientific study of commercially manufactured products, with a view to ascertaining whether their healing claims were valid or not. At present, the centres employ two methods of testing. The first deals with the bioactive screening of crude and fractioned extracts. The second, which is called the chemical approach, includes step-by-step experiments that extract, separate, isolate and purify ingredients; the process is technically described as structural elucidation, theoretical deduction of bioactivity and pharmacological testing. It is believed that such trials will bring scientific credibility to a subject that has—up to now— been cloaked in mystery.
Jamu was given further credibility in the late 1980s when an investigative centre opened in Yogyakarta, home of traditional medicine. In answer to popular requests for research and analysis of jamu, Professor Dr Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, then Director of Gadjah Mada University, set up the Research Centre for Traditional Medicine at the university. The Centre’s task is to evaluate traditional medicine, produce experimental batches, train jamu technical staff and develop raw materials. In addition, it now includes massage and acupuncture in its brief. The Centre has also adopted an educational role and operates courses on jamu making in villages throughout Central Java to help small producers improve hygiene and quality.
A Fair Trial
Clinical trials have been implemented in Indonesia, but it is a complex, Herculean task. Not only can a jamu formula consist of 40 or more ingredients, but each may contain a dozen or more chemical components. In addition to the active ingredients, there are secondary, inactive items, used to render the medicine palatable or to mask unpleasant odours. And, as Professor Sutarjadi, founder of Post-Graduate Studies at the University of Airlangga in Surabaya, points out, ingredients from different parts of Java will probably have different properties as soil, climate and altitude differ radically from one area to another.
In terms of manpower and economic resources, the task of analysing and qualifying jamu ingredients and formulæ is colossal. Detractors argue that the industry should not be burdened with such extra requirements when most Indonesians have accepted jamu at face value for centuries. To simplify research, the Indonesian Ministry of Health introduced a new ruling in the late 1990s under the heading ‘Phytopharmaca’, which loosely translates as ‘Active Plant Ingredients’.
IBU RISMA AND THE ROSY PERIWINKLE
Cancer is a fast-growing disease in Indonesia with over 190,000 new patients recorded each year. Twenty-eight year old Risma Abednego was told she had cancer, a fist-sized tumour in her womb, and her only chance was an operation—one she rejected. She was encouraged to seek out Bapak Soetijono Darsosentono, a traditional healer in Yogyakarta, who specialized in curing cancer.
He gave her traditional medicine consisting of dried benalu (Loranthes sp.) and tapak dara (rosy or Madagascar periwinkle; Catharanthus roseus) leaves. He told her to clean the leaves, boil them and drink the water. She was to repeat the process with betel nut leaves. Smoking, drinking, and the consumption of preserved, instant, spicy and sour foods, as well as lamb and seafood, were all banned. For nine months, Risma consumed large amounts of soya in the form of tempe or tofu, before returning to her doctor for a check-up. He noticed a great improvement. Eighteen months later he pronounced her completely cured.
Patients treated by Bapak Soetijono Darsosentono are urged to continue taking the medicine every day for five years. Risma developed cancer over 10 years ago but still drinks the healing brew as an insurance policy and everyone in the house follows her healthy diet. Not surprisingly, she has become an enthusiastic supporter of traditional medicine.
This ruling requires that commercial producers reduce complicated formulæ for every curing jamu to five essential ingredients in order to simplify testing. It also requires producers to standardize the active substance in each ingredient. However, a lack of information as to how traditional herbs were originally prepared hinders
