Traditional herbal medicine a remedy for penny-pinchers<\/p>\n
By Agus Maryono<\/p>\n
PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): It is 8:30 p.m. and Kusmiati is
\nbusy mixing a brownish-white herbal powder.<\/p>\n
Next to bottles neatly arranged on her table, she dexterously
\nmixes and stirs the powder in a glass. She adds three chicken
\neggs and honey.<\/p>\n
\"This is your herbal tonic. Have it now, sir. If after five
\nminutes you don't feel any reaction, please don't come back
\nhere,\" she advised the customer.<\/p>\n
The 53-year-old Purwokerto Lor villager is one of about 200
\ntraditional herbal medicine sellers in Banyumas district. Most of
\nthem sell their herbal medicine on motorcycles or by bike.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati has a permanent location. Her kiosk, located in a
\nshopping compound and across from one owned by her elder sister,
\nis open from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati has sold traditional medicine at the site since 1981.<\/p>\n
The mother of five and grandmother of four began in the
\nbusiness at age 15.<\/p>\n
She swore no competition existed with her sister because each
\nhad their own customers.<\/p>\n
\"My grandmother and my mother, both from Surakarta, were the
\nfirst and second generation of traditional herbal medicine
\nsellers. I am the youngest of 14, all selling this stuff.\"<\/p>\n
The economic crisis has been a blessing to the woman known as
\nBu (Mrs.) Kus, with a 50 percent increase in customers at the
\nkiosk.<\/p>\n
\"The number of buyers keep increasing, perhaps because many
\ncannot afford prescription medicine,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Before the crisis, she would serve about 100 people daily. Now
\nshe averages about 150. The number can reach 200 on days at the
\nbeginning or end of a month.<\/p>\n
\"Before the monetary crisis I could make only Rp 50,000 net a
\nday, but now I can earn between Rp 75,000 and Rp 100,000.\"<\/p>\n
Prices of her herbal medicine range from less than Rp 1,000 to
\nRp 5,000. Some customers drink the medicine at her kiosk, but
\nothers prefer to take it home.<\/p>\n
\"The cheapest is a concoction for sore muscles or for a cold.
\nYou can have it for Rp 1,000 a glass plus one egg mixed into the
\nconcoction. The most expensive, Rp 5,000 a glass, is the special
\nconcoction to improve a man's virility, which is mixed with three
\neggs.\"<\/p>\n
Her customers are an eclectic mix -- civil servants, security
\nguards, private company employees, pedicab drivers and
\nprostitutes.<\/p>\n
\"They (prostitutes) are my long-standing customers. Usually
\nthey need the concoction to relieve them of weariness and pain in
\ntheir muscles or to enable them to perform their job well,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Some customers come here every night. Others come here once a
\nweek or even once a month. Usually they buy the herbal medicine
\nin quite a large quantity, sometimes at a value of Rp 200,000 to
\nRp 300,000 for one purchase.\"<\/p>\n
Orders by mail come from Medan, Lampung, Bengkulu and
\nUjungpandang.<\/p>\n
Particularly popular is her family planning medicine,
\navailable at an average price of Rp 35,000 per packet and lasting
\nfor a month.<\/p>\n
\"This is my own concoction and is a traditional way of family
\nplanning.\"<\/p>\n
Head of the Banyumas office of the National Family Planning
\nBoard, Yayat Suyatno, acknowledged a sharp drop in the number of
\nparticipants in the family planning program in the region in the
\npast year as prices soared.<\/p>\n
\"The crisis has substantially increased prices of
\ncontraceptives,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Between April and December 1998, he said, there were 222,749
\nactive family planning participants, down from 262,182 in the
\nsame period in 1997. The number does not include private doctors'
\nrecords.<\/p>\n
\"We have tried our best to provide the best service possible,
\nsuch as distributing contraceptives free-of-charge through
\ncommunity health centers, but the number of family planning
\nparticipants has continued to drop.\"<\/p>\n
The office has never monitored users of traditional
\ncontraceptives.<\/p>\n
\"However, if there are many of them, we need to know what kind
\nof herbal concoction is used and how it is used,\" Suyatno said.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati said she started making the concoction nine years ago
\nbut it gained popularity two years ago.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati boasted her concoction was quite effective, but she
\nwarned it should not be taken by people with hypertension and
\nstomach problems.<\/p>\n
A hypertensive woman, she said, would be likely to suffer a
\nstroke because of the heat-generating materials used, such as
\nwhite pepper, galingale and clove. The ingredients are not good
\nfor the stomach, she added.<\/p>\n
She has participated in several traditional herbal medicine
\nfestivals both at the regional and national levels. She took
\nfirst place every year between 1987 and 1994 in the Central Java
\nmedicine festival. \"In 1997 I placed second in the same festival
\nat the national level.\"<\/p>\n
In the past year she has received orders from health community
\ncenters engaged in a back-to-nature program.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati said she used 52 kinds of herbs. Some she cultivates
\nherself and buys others from other regions, such as Sumatra,
\nKalimantan and Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
\"I must, for example, buy pasak bumi wood from Kalimantan for
\nmy men's aphrodisiac herbal concoction. Yellow sandalwood and
\nswallow's nests are usually purchased from Irian Jaya,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"Kumis kucing (a herb with leaves which have diuretic
\nproperties), cimplukan, kecipir (four-sided bean usually eaten as
\nvegetable) and some other herbs can be found in my own garden.\"<\/p>\n
Kusmiati spends up to Rp 600,000 a week on the materials to
\nmake her medicine. Ingredients for herbal concoctions are
\nrelatively stable in price, with white pepper, used in treatment
\nof colds or men's aphrodisiacs, the exception.<\/p>\n
\"White pepper used to cost only Rp 10,000 per kilogram but now
\nit is Rp 90,000\/kg. Luckily I do not depend much on it,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
She puts her concoctions into three main categories: herbal
\ntonics for men, such as those which may be used as an aphrodisiac
\nor a cure for impotence; herbal tonic and other medicines for
\nwomen, including those to cure leukorrhea; and herbal concoctions
\nwhich may be taken by anybody irrespective of their sex, such as
\nthose to combat colds, rheumatism, diabetes and hemorrhoids.<\/p>\n
Kusmiati said the secret of her success was simplicity.<\/p>\n
\"First make sure that you have all the materials for a
\nparticular concoction. Then pound these materials into fine
\npowder. The next thing to do is to mix them into a concoction.<\/p>\n
\"Then put it in a glass and mix with boiling water. Now the
\nherbal medicine is ready to drink,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/traditional-herbal-medicine-a-remedy-for-penny-pinchers-1447893297",
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