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People turn to herbal medicine in effort to avoid COVID-19
Health tonic ingredients: Customers buy herbal powders like ginger, coriander, Javanese ginger and turmeric at the Babah Kuya Indonesia herbal shop on Jl
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ealth tonic ingredients: Customers buy herbal powders like ginger, coriander, Javanese ginger and turmeric at the Babah Kuya Indonesia herbal shop on Jl. Pasar Selatan in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday.(JP/Arya Dipa)
Residents have been hoarding herbs and medicinal plants since news broke about Indonesia’s first COVID-19 cases in Depok, West Java, believing that those ingredients could help prevent virus transmission.
An old vlog video of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo drinking herbal tea made of ginger, turmeric and temulawak (Javanese ginger) before doing his daily routine on Jul. 23, 2019, has now resurfaced on social media and stirred a massive purchase of jamu (herbal medicine) to fight against the coronavirus.
A 40-year-old stay-at-home mom, Endah Suryatini, purchased red ginger at the Kemiri market in Depok on Thursday afternoon. She planned to boil the red ginger along with lemongrass and turmeric to make herbal tea, which she believed to be effective against coronavirus.
“I don’t consume jamu, maybe just kunyit asam (turmeric and tamarind) drink, occasionally. But since they [the positive COVID-19 patients] live close to my neighborhood, buying jamu is a preventive and precautionary action,” the mother of two told The Jakarta Post.
Endah said that she started to buy medicinal plants as she got information from her neighbors and she followed what they did. However, she believed strongly that jamu is effective in tackling diseases.
Tri, aged 45, has been selling herbs and medicinal plants for 20 years at Kemiri Market. She said that shoppers came to buy her goods, especially red ginger and temulawak.
She added that the price of red ginger has increased from Rp 50,000 (US$3.52) per kilogram to Rp 65,000 per kg. The price of temulawak skyrocketed from Rp 14,000 to Rp 60,0000 per kg. Despite the much higher price, she recalled a time when one customer bought 1.5 kg temulawak for coronavirus prevention.
Another seller at Kemiri market, Darkasih, 40, said that ginger is now sold at Rp 45,000 per kg at the main market in Depok, higher than the usual price of Rp 40,000 per kg. The higher price at the main market is causing opportunistic shop keepers to cash in on herbal flu remedies.
Regardless, she added that other herbs such as ginger, turmeric and greater galangal were still sold at normal prices.
A traditional jamu observer, Charles Saerang, defended the effectiveness of jamu in building antibody resistance and neutralizing pathogenic viruses and bacteria inside the body. He added that temulawak is known as a native Indonesian plant that is traditionally utilized for liver damage, hypertension and diabetes.
“When temulawak is combined with red ginger, it would create an effect that can protect the body from viruses. This is the right moment to reintroduce jamu as a healthy drink to society,” he said.
In contrast, Faisal Yunus, a pulmonologist from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, said there had never been any medical proof of how jamu would be able to prevent or to fight COVID-19, which could lead to pneumonia.
“For people to consume herbal medicines, it is just fine. But what matters is that we keep well-rested, keep hydrated, eat clean and healthy foods and wash our hands frequently to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
“We need to balance our lifestyles and frequently partake in daily exercise. That’s all we need to keep ourselves healthy.”
He compared the current situation to a phenomenon in 2009 when tens of thousands of people came to the small city of Jombang in East Java to meet a boy named Ponari because they believed he was able to heal any illness with the help of a magic stone.
“People are only following what others said but what others said might not always be true,” he said.
Echoing Faisal, the head of disease control and prevention at the Jakarta Health Agency, Dwi Octavia, said that it was okay to consume jamu to keep healthy. However, she did not recommend that people bulk buy herbs and medicinal plants to prevent coronavirus.
“Principally, to fight viruses, we need to apply a healthy and clean lifestyle to our daily lives,” she told the Post.
“Specifically, we need to wash our hands for 20 seconds, cover our nose and mouth while coughing and use tissues or wet wipes.” (trn/glh)
