'Jamu' carries the stigma of being unscientific

By Gedsiri Suhartono

JAKARTA (JP): Alternative medicine has been around for ages, and long after the introduction of western medicine and professionally trained doctors, it remains popular.

In the international medicine market, traditional medicine experts say that Indonesian traditional medicine has less than 1 percent of the world's traditional medicine market.

Suwijiyo Pramono, who teaches at the School of Pharmacy at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said that the popularity of traditional medicine is on the up.

Data released by the Directorate General for Food and Drug Supervision, says that in 1990, jamu production amounted only to 4.013 tons, worth US$37 million. Four years later the industry produced 7.913 tons of jamu, worth about $119.2 million.

In 1978, the directorate general investigated jamu products and what they claimed to cure; they are used as medication, stimulants, health tonics, cosmetics, menstrual aids and aphrodisiacs.

Only rarely do jamu concoctions claim to cure real diseases, although some do claim to cure high blood pressure, diabetes and hepatitis.

Although almost half of all jamu is marketed as medicine, most consumers use the herbal medicine as a preventative measure, to preserve their health.

Compared to other countries such as China, Japan and Korea, jamu has not earned the recognition, let alone privilege, enjoyed by its counterparts.

Jaya Suprana, director of a leading jamu factory in Semarang, Central Java, by the name of Jamu Jago, said that the lack of recognition is largely due to jamu's suggestive nature.

Even worse, he added, traditional medicine is often accused of being unscientific and containing hazardous elements.

"But even the World Health Organization has said the chances of modern medicine to cure diseases is only 60 percent," Jaya argued.

Traditional medicine is considered dubious since its power is ambiguous. Also, the lack of ingredients and standards hampers jamu's credibility in the eyes of health practitioners as well as consumers.

To this, Jaya retorted that consumers are more concerned with the cure itself than in its scientific explanation.

The government has recently begun to encourage research and development in the field of traditional medicine and alternative healing.

Upon returning from a work visit to China, Minister of Health Sujudi said that in China, modern and traditional medicine coexist side by side, allowing patients a choice.

"The treasure of cultural heritage has gained prominence at home as well as overseas. The existence of an educational institution which trains specialized practitioners of traditional medicine can be cited as evidence of this prominence," Sujudi said.

Last year, the minister opened a unit for traditional medicine at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta. The Center for Development and Application of Traditional Medicine is the third facility here to incorporate both modern and traditional medicine under one roof, following its predecessor in Surabaya and Yogyakarta. The government plans to open 12 other facilities before the end of the century.

The Ministry of Health last year also drafted a policy to control the flow of traditional medicine, which was circulating without any government control.

Natural wealth

Minister for Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja often complains of Indonesian ignorance when it comes to the bounty of nature.

"What a waste. We do not know enough about our own affluence to take advantage of our natural resources in the field of medicine," he said.

Traditional medicine usually contains medicinal plants such as ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, papaya leaf, fennel, aniseed, tamarind as well as many other roots, seeds, tubers and leaves.

Pharmacologist Sardjono Oerip Santoso from the University of Indonesia said that only 940 of the recognized 7,000 cultivated plants in the country are used in jamu.

Last June, Sardjono started testing traditional herbs on animals in the hope of finding a cure for cancer.

Subagus Wahyuono of the traditional medicine research center at Gadjah Mada University said that medicine plants have long been used in developing countries.

"In fact, using plants to cure various ailments is more common in those countries than modern medicine," he added.

Consumers

Nowadays, jamu is concocted, presented and packed in various ways to accommodate consumers' needs.

Contemporary versions of jamu come in the form of powdered tonics, pills, or capsules.

In Java, the original version, locally dubbed jamu gendong, is usually hawked around the neighborhood by women whose knowledge of nature's healing powers was passed on from their ancestors.

Mbok jamu generally peddles her herbal tonics -- strapped to her back in a bamboo basket -- around the city's streets, wet markets and residential areas. Some have permanent customers, other meet their customers on their way.

Although there is an indication that traditional medicine is on the rise, Suwijiyo said, it is still limited to the middle and lower classes.

Neither modern nor traditional jamu producers consider the other their rivals because each has a different market.

Consumers of factory-produced jamu are said to be those of the middle to upper classes who march to the fast pace of modern life and prefer to have instant herbal tonics instead of waiting for the mbok jamu to pass by.

Construction workers, housemaids, housewives, food vendors, public transport drivers and pedestrians are the regular customers of mbok jamu.

Martha Tilaar, a businesswoman specializing in jamu and cosmetics holds yearly contests for jamu vendors, with the intention of raising public awareness and promoting the welfare of jamu vendors.

"I just happen to be luckier than them. They are by no means my competitors," Martha said at the fifth vendor contest.