Traditional cures get a boost due to crisis

Traditional cures get a boost due to crisis

By A. Ariobimo Nusantara

JAKARTA (JP): More people are turning to traditional medicines
to cure what ails them as prices of generic and patented drugs
soar.

Traditional drugs are not only more inexpensive than their
modern, chemical cousins, but can be just as effective.

It should not just be a temporary measure for the duration of
the crisis, but for the long term because the country enjoys a
wealth of ingredients for traditional medicines. Lack of
knowledge, information and promotion of their benefits often lead
people to opt for chemical drugs.

It must be admitted that promotion has fallen short of the
optimum, evidence by the fact that the bulk of expensive modern
medicines are imported.

Resources

Prominent jamu (herbal medicine) businesswoman Martha Tilaar
has affirmed that the country is second only to Brazil in its
abundance of natural materials for medicines. While our ancestors
knew the benefits of spices and wild plants as material for
medicine, much of this knowledge has been lost by a modernizing
world population which has turned to chemical drugs to heal any
ailments.

For generations, our ancestors tried to distinguish the
characteristics of each plant they encountered. The application
of traditional medicine has gone through a trial-and-error
process requiring patience and accuracy as all parts of medicinal
plants can be used for different purposes.

Part of a plant can be used on its own or mixed with other
ingredients to create a healing agent. It is said that the Dayak
Kenyah people of Central Kalimantan know some 200 species of
medicinal and poisonous plants, out of 165 genres and 77
families.

Many dukun (healers) have extensive botanical and medical
knowledge. Without technical records and analyses, they reference
various signs and phenomena to determine the therapy for
ailments.

Sri Purnomowati and Ambar Yoganingrum, researchers from the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), recently studied the
property, chemical content, botanical aspects and processing of
temulawak (a kind of wild ginger).

They found that temulawak has anti-bacterial, anti-fungus,
anti-diabetic, anti-diarrhea, anti-inflammation, anti-
hepatotoxic, anti-oxydant and anti-tumor qualities. It also is an
analgesic, depressant, diuretic, hypothermic, hypolipidemic and
an insecticide. It has many other qualities as well.

Ubi jalar (sweet potatoes) are used to treat jaundice, weight
problems, hypertension, diabetes, uric acid, constipation,
eczema, sprains and is both an external and internal medication.
Prof. Hembing Wijayakusuma, an expert in traditional medicine,
says that "ubi jalar are low in calories, have a lot of water and
are high in fiber. They can prevent the accumulation of fat in
the blood and they are high in protein."

The medical potential of Indonesian flora is indeed well known
throughout the world. It is not surprising that Dutch colonial
records make frequent references to the archipelago's spices as
attractive commodities for foreign traders. Dutch and other
Western merchants targeted Maluku, Sulawesi and Sumatra for
hundreds of years because the areas were known to be rich in
spices.

'Jamu'

Knowledge of medicinal plants in Indonesia has been handed
down from generation to generation. Medicinal plants can
complement modern medications prescribed in the formal health
sector. Indonesians refer to traditional medicine as jamu.

Jamu is sold in sidewalk tents and by roaming vendors, most of
whom are women. Prices are affordable. With Rp 500 to Rp 1,000, a
client can get medicine supposedly able to cure his or her
ailment. Jamu vendors determine a suitable type of jamu to be
used for headaches, muscle pains, constipation, etc. The herbal
medicine is sometimes mixed with the yolk of a raw egg.

The various kinds of jamu are generally made by the vendors
themselves based on their knowledge of medicinal plants which can
be easily cultivated or bought in the market. Ingredients of
various types of jamu include galingale, wine, ginger, sweet
potatoes and other inexpensive material. With a small working
capital, roaming jamu vendors can earn between Rp 30,000 and Rp
40,000 a day, depending on the number of raw eggs they must use.

Jamu vendors usually start work at 4:30 a.m. They peel and
grind the raw materials for their treatments and then mix the
various ingredients. Roaming vendors usually hawk their
merchandise in residential areas, construction projects, markets
and other busy places.

Jamu gendong, refers to jamu sold by women carrying their
medicines on their back with a sling. These herbal medicines are
a typical product of the Javanese community. It is said that
initially the jamu was made according to a secret recipe of
kraton (palace court) women in the 17th century to maintain
health and beauty. The recipe was handed down only by word of
mouth. Since the 1930s, however, this jamu has been produced
commercially.

Jamu tenda, the jamu sold in sidewalk tents, is different. The
vendors can be found on corners throughout metropolitan Jakarta
waiting for their customers. Some of them set up huge tents with
neon lights and loudspeakers to attract clients. These vendors
usually have a bigger capital and are able to turn over more
sales.

Sidewalk tent merchants often offer greater variety than
roaming vendors. The ingredients are in packets produced by jamu
factories and can be readily mixed with hot water. Benari, Kuku
Bima, Ra Linu, Esha and BenKwat are trademarks constituting the
avant garde of jamu traders.

The visitors of these jamu tents are generally men from the
middle and lower classes of Jakarta. Some spend hours sitting in
a tent, not unlike yuppies who relax in cafes. Jamu traders often
lend a willing ear to the complaints of their clients before
deciding on a solution to their problems.

Opportunity

The economic crisis may provide commercial opportunities to
traditional medicine vendors. The head of the Directorate of
Traditional Medicine Supervision at the Ministry of Health, Dr.
Johny Ria Hutapea, told a seminar on traditional medicine in
Semarang, Central Java, that there were nine types of traditional
medicine that have been prioritized to complement modern drugs.
The nine types of jamu are treatments for muscle pains, diarrhea,
anemia, worms, diabetes, malaria, urolitiasis (bladder stones),
hepatoprotector (liver problems) and hyperlipidemia (lipid
content in hypertension).

In another seminar, Hadi S. Alikodra, an assistant to the
minister of environment, recommended that scientists carry out
research on medicinal plants in order to boost public confidence
in traditional medicines. Scientists and scholars are needed to
lend prominence to not only chemical drugs, but also traditional
medicine, Hadi said.

The "back to nature" phenomenon is like a blessing in disguise
for us. So far, Indonesians -- mainly the modern communities in
big cities -- tend to look askance at the usefulness of
traditional medicine and prefer to use relatively expensive
modern drugs. Now that the economic crisis is raging and drugs
are hard to afford, public awareness of traditional medicine is
finally coming to the surface.

Scientific recognition of jamu would boost the possibility of
obtaining significant foreign exchange through the export of
traditional medicine. Apparently, we still have a lot to learn
from China in this respect.