About This Tradition

Jamu is Indonesia's traditional herbal system, one of the oldest in Southeast Asia with documented use going back over 1,200 years. Jamu preparations are made from fresh or dried rhizomes, roots, leaves, and aromatic plants, often combined with honey, tamarind, or lime juice. Jamu jamu sellers (traditionally women called jamu gendong) once carried their preparations door to door in villages across Java and Bali, a practice that still continues. Indonesia's Ministry of Health has formally classified Jamu as part of the national healthcare system, giving it official standing alongside conventional medicine.

Traditional Thai medicine incorporates a theory of four body elements (earth, water, wind, fire) with a concept of "wind" (lom) as a pathological force that can disturb the body's balance. It draws significantly from Ayurvedic frameworks brought through early trade routes from India, combined with indigenous Southeast Asian plant knowledge and later Chinese influence. Thai herbal practitioners (mor ya) use both internal preparations and external applications including herbal steam baths and compresses.

Filipino hilot is primarily a bodywork and herbal tradition practiced by healers called manghihilot. It combines massage, manipulation, and plant medicine, with a strong emphasis on fresh local plants, coconut oil preparations, and community-based healing. Each of these national traditions maintains its own distinct logic while sharing a regional plant knowledge base shaped by the tropical biodiversity of the area, one of the richest on earth for medicinal plants.

Key Principles

• Fresh herb preference: Across Southeast Asian traditions, fresh plants are preferred over dried when available. The aromatic volatile oils in plants like basil and lemongrass are considered most potent in the fresh state.
• Culinary medicine: The distinction between food and medicine is minimal. Turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, basil, and gotu kola appear in daily cooking and in medicinal preparations. What is eaten preventively is closely related to what is taken therapeutically.
• Rhizome-centered pharmacology: Rhizomes (underground plant stems) play a central role. Ginger, turmeric, galangal, and lesser galangal are foundational in most of the regional systems.
• Ayurvedic and TCM overlap: Many concepts in Southeast Asian herbalism, including the balance of hot and cold qualities, the importance of digestion as a root of health, and the use of specific formulas, arrived through Ayurvedic and Chinese medical contact rather than developing independently. Local plants were adapted into existing frameworks.
• Postpartum care traditions: Southeast Asian herbal traditions have particularly well-developed postpartum protocols. Jamu perawatan (postpartum Jamu), Thai yu fai (mother roasting), and Filipino hilot postpartum care all center on warming herbs, binding, and rest as standard postpartum medicine.
• Community healer structure: Knowledge is held by specific individuals within communities (dukun in Indonesia, mor ya in Thailand, manghihilot in the Philippines) rather than institutionalized in the same way as Kampo or formal Ayurveda. Transmission is apprenticeship-based.

Herbs in This Tradition

• Basil: Multiple basil varieties play different roles across the region. Holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum, called tulsi in Ayurveda and krapao in Thai) is used in Thai medicine for stress, respiratory complaints, and digestive support, and is a central ingredient in Thai cooking. Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) is used throughout the region for digestive complaints, anti-inflammatory effects, and antimicrobial properties. The eugenol content in basil varieties is well-studied for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity.
• Gotu Kola: Called "pegagan" in Indonesian Jamu and "bai bua bok" in Thai medicine; one of the most widely used herbs across the region. Traditionally used as a brain tonic, wound healer, and connective tissue support herb. Asiaticoside, madecassoside, and asiatic acid are the primary studied compounds; asiaticoside in particular has been researched for wound healing and collagen synthesis. Used in both internal preparations (fresh leaf juice, tea, and Jamu drinks) and topical applications for skin conditions and scar healing.

Related Preparations

• Jamu drinks: Fresh or dried herbs blended or boiled into liquid preparations, often with honey, tamarind, lime, or palm sugar. Consumed daily as preventive medicine across Indonesia.
• Fresh leaf juice: Gotu kola and other leafy herbs are pressed or blended fresh, with the juice taken directly. Retains volatile compounds that would be lost in heating.
• Herbal compresses (luk pra kob): A bundle of fresh or dried herbs (often including lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, turmeric, and camphor) steamed and applied to the body. Central to Thai massage practice for muscle pain and joint complaints.
• Herbal steam baths: Boiling aromatic herbs and inhaling the steam, or using the steam in a bath preparation. Used across Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines for respiratory complaints, postpartum care, and skin conditions.
• Coconut oil infusions: Herbs macerated in coconut oil for topical use. Common in Filipino hilot practice for massage and wound healing.
• Paste preparations: Fresh rhizomes (turmeric, galangal) ground into paste and applied topically or incorporated into food. Used in Jamu and Thai medicine for inflammatory skin conditions and joint pain.