'Jamu': Cheap alternative medicine during crisis

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Although Indonesia is acclaimed for its natural wealth, it still has to import 90 percent of raw materials for medicines, because the country is unable to afford the money for research, health experts say.

The heavy dependence on imported materials has long been singled out as the prime cause for the very expensive medicines in Indonesia. Now that the rupiah has plummeted against the U.S. dollar, people have to pay even more for drugs, even for the relatively cheaper and heavily subsidized generic drugs.

Faced with this difficult situation, many people from the lower-income brackets have turned to cheaper traditional medicines.

A. Djuana is one of the many people who have turned to alternative medicines to beat the rising drug prices.

He usually needs a painkilling injection and a few tablets to ease the pain in his ankle, which is troubled by rheumatism. But one day he was astounded by the price of the tablets.

Eventually, he was advised by a consumer of herbal medicines to drink ginger tea.

"I diligently drank the tea, and after a week or so I could once again take my daily morning walk, which usually lasts for an hour. The ginger tea makes me to urinate more frequently at night, which is of course beneficial for my kidneys, which are prone to kidney stones," Djuana wrote in The Jakarta Post.

He also discovered the wonders of another alternative medicine, minyak tawon (bee oil).

He said that an old lady told him that one day her son accidentally slammed the car door on his seven year old child. The boy screamed in agony as his hand was caught in the door. She immediately applied minyak tawon to her grandson's hand.

"When the boy was later taken to a doctor, the physician said the boy's hand was fine and no medical treatment was needed," said Djuana, whose 13-year-old grandson also takes five papaya fruit seeds three times a day in order to stave off deteriorating eyesight.

Alternative medicines have been around for ages, long before modern medicine was discovered.

According to Alam Sumber Kesehatan, a book by Mooryati Soedibyo, a businesswoman specializing in traditional jamu herbal medicines and cosmetics, Indonesia boasts around 1,500 plant species known to have curative effects.

Jamu has been popular since ancient times, and is widely used in Indonesian.

However, compared to alternative medicines in other countries such as China, Japan and Korea, jamu has not yet earned a reputation on the international market.

Many modern health experts still doubt the effectiveness of traditional medicines, saying there is a lack of scientific proof of their curative effects.

Jaya Suprana, director of Jamu Jago, a jamu factory in Semarang, Central Java, acknowledges that jamu has not obtained the same reputation of alternative medicines from other countries, because the claims of effectiveness are not based on scientific studies.

But, he says, people sometimes are more concerned about the cure itself than scientific explanations.

"And with the crisis and high drug prices, it is certainly the right time to promote the use of traditional medicines to cure ailments and preserve one's health," Jaya told participants of a recent seminar on traditional medicines held at the Ministry of Health.

Marking national health day, which fell on Nov. 12, the ministry pledged to promote the use of alternative medicines to help deal with spiraling medicine prices.

Minister of Health Farid A. Moeloek recognized the wide use of alternative medicines and treatments in society.

"During the current monetary crisis, which has been followed by the skyrocketing prices of drugs, traditional medicines are the main alternative to maintain one's health or to heal ailments...," Farid said when addressing the seminar.

He also noted the upward trend in the use of traditional medicines.

"However, there's a need to improve their (alternative medicines') quality," Farid said.

The directorate general for the supervision of food and drugs at the ministry has data which shows that in 1990, 4.013 tons of jamu worth US$37 million were produced, and in 1994 this amount increased to 7.913 tons worth $119.2 million.

As part of its support of the development of traditional medicines, the ministry has set up several centers for the development and application of jamu, recognizing the important role jamu plays in health care. One of the centers is located at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta.

Previously, the directorate general had investigated jamu products and the scientific proof behind their health care claims. Jamu products are generally used as medication, stimulants, tonics, cosmetics, menstrual aids and aphrodisiacs.

In the past, jamu was considered less prestigious and was sold on the streets by mbok jamu, women selling the traditional medicines in bamboo baskets strapped to their backs with selendang. Now jamu is available in kiosks and shopping centers, attractively packed and labeled for consumers.

These days, one can easily find modern versions of jamu that come in instant powders, pills or capsules, and are sold in shopping centers at affordable prices.