Have you ever heard about jamu? If you live around South East Asia, particularly Indonesia, maybe the answer is yes. But for you who never heard about jamu, let’s say that jamu is a kind of traditional tonic or herbal drink aid for health. Different jamu prepared with different natural ingredients for various health ailment.
One of people favorite is jamu kunyit asam. this yellow traditional drink is made of the combination between turmeric juice and tamarind solution. The name represents its ingredients. Kunyit is turmeric and asam is tamarind in Bahasa Indonesia. but if you are wondering about the taste, don’t worry. It tastes great.
Nowadays, jamu kunyit asam many even served not only as herbal drink, but also as soft drink. It is served with ice in some fancy café and restaurant along with jamu beras kencur with its Benefits of Jamu Beras Kencur. However, not only the taste, people also love this drink for the health benefits of jamu kunyit asam. It is believed that jamu kunyit asam can deal with many health problems.
Nutritional Information of Jamu Kunyit Asam
The health benefits of jamu kunyit asam comes from the main ingredients of the beverage, which are turmeric and tamarind. Here are the nutritional information we can get from Health Benefits of Tamarind and Turmeric Drink or jamu kunyit asam .
- Calories
- Protein
- Carbohydrate
- Dietary fiber
- Fats
- Calcium
- Phosphorus
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Sodium
- Zinc
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B1
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Curcumin
The Health Benefits of Jamu Kunyit Asam
From the long list of nutritional information above, we can say this Indonesian traditional food is able to provide us with the health benefits of jamu kunyit asam. Here are some of the health benefits we can get from jamu kunyit asam, the sweet and sour yellow beverage from Indonesia.
- Reduce menstrual pain
Most women in Indonesia have known about the health benefits of jamu kunyit asam for women. It effectively helps women to reduce the severity of the menstrual pain. It is possible since jamu kunyit asam contains curcumin with its analgesic effect which is effective to soothe the inflammation and uterus contraction during the menstruation. Besides helping with menstrual pain, jamu kunyit asem also helps women to have better menstrual cycle.
- Improve kidney health
Jamu kunyit asam is a potential diuretic. This way, it will make you excrete more urine. This way, consuming jamu kunyit asam can actually flush the exceeding fats, bad bacteria, and the other unwanted material through the urine excretion. The regular urination will help to improve the kidney health, and all along the urine tract. This way, we can also avoid the infection of urine tract.
- Improve body immunity
The high level of vitamin C owned by tamarind with its Health Benefits of Tamarind Fruit is able to contribute a good work in improving immune system. Vitamin C is the main shield to protect us from threat of bacteria and virus we may encountered during our daily activity. So, it is very good to prevent some diseases such as flu and sprue.
- Reduce the risk of cancer
From the bright yellow color of turmeric with its Benefits of Turmeric For Health, we can notice that this root contains good amount of antioxidants. The antioxidants are very beneficial to fight free radicals and reduce the risk of developing cancer. Based on some clinical studies, turmeric can reduce the risk of some cancer including prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.
- Help to lose weight
Curcumin in jamu kunyit asam is not only beneficial to reduce menstrual pain. It can also help women to get the ideal body weight. Well, consuming jamu kunyit asam is surprisingly able to help you losing some pounds. It is possible since turmeric helps with normal metabolism and effectively reduce exceeding fats within the body which is one of the factors of obesity.
- Treat joints pain
The analgesic property of curcumin from jamu kunyit asam is very effective to reduce pain. Besides effective to reduce stomach cramps during menstruation, it can also reuce pain in the jojnts mainly caused by arthritis. The anti-inflammatory property of jamu kunyit asam helps to reduce the inflammation within the joints.
The other benefits of jamu kunyit asam :
- Good for mouth and teeth
- Good for skin
- Deal with body odor problem
- Maintain good digestion
How to Make Jamu Kunyit Asam
Long time ago, jamu, including jamu kunyit asam is only made by old women who sell jamu with their babmboo basket, who are also known as “mbok jamu”. But today, jamu kunyit asam is very easy to get. It is available in store either in ready to drink bottle, or the instant powder that you can brew everywhere and every time. Or else, you can also make your homemade jamu kunyit asam . Don’t worry, it is very easy to prepare. And as we know, homemade stuff would value more than those you can easily grab from the store shelves. Here are the steps to guide you about how to prepare your homemade jamu kunyit asam.
First, prepare 1 L of water (900 ml cold and 100 ml hot). Then prepare the main ingredient, 150 g turmeric and 100 g tamarind paste (obtained from dissolving tamarind seeds in hot water). For the sweetener, you can add white sugar, palm sugar. But adding 50 – 100 g of palm sugar is recommended for this jamu as it owns the Health Benefits of Palm Sugar. And for the container, you can prepare 2 – 3 sterilized glass bottles.
To get it done, you should clean and remove all the turmeric roots skin. Chop it into small pieces and place in a blender and blend it until you reach the smooth consistency. For the tamarind paste you can starin the paste to make sure that you’ll only get the tamarind juice.
Then, add sugar to the hot water, add the turmeric roots and tamarind solution into the hot water, pour all the water, and stir it well. After that, you can strain the mixture to separate the liquid with the solid, and your homemade jamu kunyit asam is ready to be poured into bottle. You can drink your own jamu kunyit asam every morning. It can last for two days in refrigerator.
