Make Your Own Jamu is Not Difficult, Here is the Right Way to Prepare Jamu

clay pot to cook traditional medicine

Traditional herbal drink such as jamu is nutritious. And each jamu recipe can deal with specific illness. But, if we prepare it in a wrong way, then its benefits will be reduced, even be gone. Prof Dr Mangestuti Agil, MS, Apt from Pharmacy Department in Airlangga University explained that the key to process herbal plants into jamu is on how we extract their ingredients.

The ideal way to extract herbal plants to make jamu is by following the ways Indonesians’ ancestors did. They were grinding the plants and then, added water little by little. Afterwards, they squeezed the concoction.

“Ancient people had understood how to avoid heat because if [the plants] were exposed to heat, the health benefits would be gone,” he said in “Herba Talks” at the Airlangga University Library, in Surabaya, Tuesday (21/2).

However, the Professor of Pharmaceutical botanical science and Pharmacognosy said that this way indeed took times. So, for people who are busy, boiling herbal plants is an acceptable way. The consequence is that some substances are gone.

“It is OK if it is reduced, as long as it is consumed regularly. Besides, the older we are, the longer [the herbal plants] the effects will be started to work in our bodies. If we consume it regularly, soon we will feel the effects,” he added.

Another important factor is that we choose herbal plants that are clean and in good condition. It will influence the quality of jamu that we make. Peel the ingredients clean, then slice them thinly. Why should you slice them thinly? “This is so that we give the compounds in the ingredients chances or facilities to come out,” he said.

He suggested that we use cooking ware made from stainless steel or steel. The purpose is to prevent the compounds vaporize. To store the liquid jamu, he suggested that we use glass bottles and not plastic bottles. It is to prevent the chemicals in plastic bottle mixed with the jamu.

The last, Prof Manges reminded that we should remove the waste after we made jamu once. Don’t use the waste to make another jamu. “There is possibility that fungus grow on the waste, then trigger aflatoxin that can damage liver,” he added as quoted from Detik Health.

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