Thervina Yenni Tri Kusuma 12.70.

0121
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Siti Qolifah
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Vilia Angela W 12.70.0179
Elisabeth Eolia 14.I1.0012

History of Jamu
Jamu is a traditional herbal medicine from Indonesian and handed down through
generations and have a function for treating sicknesses. According to experts in
Javanese linguistics, the term Jamu originated from Javanese words Djampi or Jampi
or Usodo, which mean healing, while jamu is the word used mostly by local people
today. Jamu is claimed that originated in the Mataram Kingdom (1300 years ago), and
was heavily influenced by Ayurveda from India. Jamu culture reached a pinnacle during
the Majapahit Kingdom in east Java, when famous beauty treatments were created in the
Kraton (Palace) (Tridjaja, 2013). Its start from eight century that find about evidence of
external and internal use of herbs for development of jamu. Kalpataru tree as a relief on
Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Indonesia is one of the evidence and a lot people
have mythology that kalpataru tree as a symbolized as lives forever. As main
ingredients for jamu, people crushed kalpataru tree. Some of those ancient scripts are
Usada Tetenger Beling, Serat Primbon Jampi, and Usada Tiwas Panggung. All of
three ancient scripts are kept and belongs to the King of Pakubuwono IX and X in
Mangkunegaran Palace, Surakarta, Central Java.
Jamu divided into 4 classifications based on the Javanese dictionary of herbs (primbon)
and until right now still circulating in the society based on their usability: for mens can
consumed jalu usada for stay healthy and virility, for womens can consumed wanito
usada, it can make body health and beauty, for our childrens can consumed rarya usada
with advantages for cure intestinal worms, cough, diarrhea, and triguna usada, it can
consume by all of people who suffered common diseases such as dizziness, cough, flu,
or vomiting (Natadjaja et al, 2014).
The traditional methods of making jamu and still popular in javaneses society, such as
by boiling prepared herbal ingredients (jamu godok). The popular traditional tools for
making jamu include Lumpang (small iron mortar), parut (grater), pipisan and kuali
(clay pot) (Tridjaja, 2013). Traditional tools in javanese heritages are very important for
traditional medicines of plant, since they are consist of many recipes of javanese jamu
traditional medicines. About 151 species of plants have been used as medicinal plants

by many people. The plants species which mentioned earlier are all belong to 125
genera and 57 families. On The Javanese village, some of species are commonly used,
such as: Zingiberaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Euphobiaceae and Lamiaceae.
Zingiberaceae is one of ginger family and the most important plant family for making
of traditional jamu.
Preparation and Serving of Jamu
Everybody in this world always want their life and body healthy by consuming the right
food, and so are javanese people. Javanese people consume jamu from the freshly
leaves or other part of plants for make a good health and stable condition. From the part
of plants ( leaf, bark, fruit, flower, roots, etc), we can made certain decoctions for curing
illness or some diseases. The prescriptions of this traditional medicine (jamu) are
usually obtained from nun dukun (village medical practitioner).
Based on the preparation manner, 2 big groups of jamu such as (1) jamu containing
only a single plant species and (2) jamu containing more than 2 plant species. In
Javanese culture the forms to serve jamu can be divided into 5 groups, such as: Jamu
Segar, Jamu Godogan, Jamu Seduhan, Jamu Olesan, Jamu in modern form such as:
Pills, Tablets or Capsules (Sangat & Riswan, 1992).
Cultured and Philosophy of Jamu
The Javanese traditional medicines knowledge is usually simply passes from generation
to generation. The prepararation method of jamu can be conducted by preparing part of
plants or a whole plants, single or mixture of plants. The function of jamu is to curing
diseases, keep healthy body, increase their imune body, and also other purposes.In other
terms, any closed connection with the Javanese traditional medicines (jamu) are
empon-empon, botekan, and jamu gendong.
a.

Empon-empon
1. Every family in javanese always have home garden for cultivating the medical
plants. Empon-empon its same with home garden or pekarangan in bahasa for
medicinal plants.

2.

Another meaning of empon-empon is a group of medicinal plants like a ginger

b.

family (Zingiberaceae), for examples, such as kunir (Curcuma longa L.), etc.
Botekan
Botekan is a container from wood materila to keep dry materials for main

c.

ingredients of jamu.
Jamu Gendong
A fresh jamu in bottle with the method of service to costumer with serving and
selling. So the seller must bring the jamu at the back of their body and serving to
the customer. 5 variants of jamu which usually are sold through jamu gendong,
such as: Jamu beras kencur, Jamu paitan, Jamu galian, Jamu cabe puyang, Jamu

d.

kunir asem.
Jamu Cekok
This jamu cekok usually consume for baby in javanese family. The benefit from
Jamu cekok is effective for increasing appetite on baby and child. Cekok means
put in something (liquid forms) through the mouth of baby by compulsion, because
the taste of this jamu not nice (bitter) the baby or child will reject due to the taste

jamu. (Riswan & Harini, 2002).

Recently, we can find a lot of modern packaging for jamu in Indonesia. Tolak Angin is
a modern product for jamu in liquid form. One of ingredients inside of product contain
ginger as a one part of makin jamu in traditional way.
References
Natadjaja, Listia, Faruk Tripoli, and Bayu Wahyono. 2014. Traditional Medicine (Jamu)
in Modern Medical Discourse. The International Journal of Social Sciences 30 th July
2014. Vol.25 No.1
Riswan, Soedarsono and Harini Sangat Roemantyo. 2002. Jamu as Traditional Medicine
in Java, Indonesia. South Pacific Study Vol. 23, no. 1.
Sangat-Roemantyo, H and Riswan, S. 1992. Tradisi Pasangan Tumbuhan Obat Alami
Dalam Budaya Jawa. In: Prosiding Seminar dan Lokakarya Nasional Etnobotani. Feb.
19-20, 1992. Cisarua, Bogor, Indonesia, pp.40-44.
Tridjaja, I. Nyoman Oka. 2013. Jamu: A Healthy Drink from Indonesia. International
Sympossium on Agri-Foods for Health and Wealth. August 5-8, 2013, Golden Tulip
Sovereign Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.