'Jamu': Cheap alternative medicine during crisis

'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.