Alpinia galanga


Alpinia galanga, a plant in the ginger family, bears a rhizome used as an herb in Southeast Asian cookery. It is one of four plants known as "galangal", and is differentiated from the others with the common names lengkuas, greater galangal, and blue ginger.

Names

The name "galangal" is probably derived from Persian qulanjan or Arabic khalanjan, which in turn may be an adaptation of Chinese gao liang jiang. Its names in India is derived from the same root, including kulanja in Sanskrit, kulanjan in Hindi, and kholinjan in Urdu.
The name "lengkuas", on the other hand, is derived from Malay lengkuas, which is derived from Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *laŋkuas, with cognates including Ilokano langkuás; Tagalog, Bikol, Kapampangan, Visayan, and Manobo langkáuas or langkáwas; Aklanon eangkawás; Kadazan Dusun hongkuas; Ida'an lengkuas; Ngaju Dayak langkuas; and Iban engkuas. Some of the names have become generalized and are also applied to other species of Alpinia as well as for Curcuma zedoaria.
Alpinia galanga is also called laos Javanese and laja in Sundanese. Other names include romdeng in Cambodia; pa de kaw in Myanmar; kha in Thailand; nankyo in Japan; and hong dou kou in Mandarin Chinese. In Tamil it is known as a "பேரரத்தை or பெரியரத்தை", widely used in Siddha Medicine and in culinaries.

History of domestication

Lengkuas is native to Southeast Asia. Its original center of cultivation during the spice trade was Java, and today it is still cultivated extensively in Island Southeast Asia, most notably in the Greater Sunda Islands and the Philippines. Its cultivation has also spread into Mainland Southeast Asia, most notably Thailand. Lengkuas is also the source of the leaves used to make nanel among the Kavalan people of Taiwan, a rolled leaf instrument used as a traditional children's toy common among Austronesian cultures.

Description

The plant grows from rhizomes in clumps of stiff stalks up to in height with abundant long leaves that bear red fruit. This plant's rhizome is the "galangal" used most often in cookery. It is valued for its use in food and traditional medicine, and is regarded as being superior to ginger. The rhizome has a pungent smell and strong taste reminiscent of black pepper and pine needles. Red and white cultivars are often used differently, with red cultivars being primarily medicinal, and white cultivars primarily as a spice. The red fruit is used in traditional Chinese medicine and has a flavor similar to cardamom.

Culinary uses

The rhizome is a common ingredient in Thai curries and soups, where it is used fresh in chunks or cut into thin slices, mashed and mixed into curry paste. Indonesian rendang is usually spiced with galangal.

Traditional medicine

Under the names 'chewing John', 'little John to chew', and 'court case root', it is used in African American folk medicine and hoodoo folk magic. Ayurveda considers A. galanga as a Vata Shamana drug. Known as :ta:பேரரத்தை|பேரரத்தை in Tamil, this form of ginger is used with licorice root, called in Tamil athi-mathuram as folk medicine for colds and sore throats.

Potential pharmacology

The rhizome has been shown to have weak antimalarial activity in mice.

Chemical constituents

Alpinia galanga rhizome contains the flavonol galangin. The rhizome contains an oil known as galangol, which upon fractional distillation produces cineol, pinene, and eugenol, among others.