Galanga 347
20.1 Introduction
Galanga (not to be confused with the galangal, which is Alpinia galanga) is a perennial
aromatic rhizomatous herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Kaempferia of the
family Zingiberaceae. This genus is comprised of about 70 species. In The Flora of
British India, Baker (1890) described 22 species, among which K. galanga and K.
rotunda are of economic value and are used for flavouring food and in medicine.
Rhizome and roots are aromatic and are used as spice. It is widely used in Indonesia
(called ‘Kenkur’), Philippines and Thailand (called ‘Krachai’ or ‘Kachai’) in flavouring
a variety of dishes. In Thailand a related species, K. parviflora is under cultivation
(Pojanagaroon et al., 2004). The essential oil from the rhizomes is used in perfumery
and folk medicines. In Java, the rhizomes are used in seasoning rice dishes, and also
pickled. The Javan beverage ‘beras kentjoor’ is made from the rhizomes. In many Asian
countries galanga is used interchangeably with galangal (Duke, 2003). Leaves are
eaten raw or after steaming, or cooked with chili (Duke, 2003). Both rhizomes and
leaves are used in Asian countries for perfuming oil, vinegar, hair washes, powders, etc.
The genus is presumably native to tropical Asia and is distributed in the tropics
and subtropics of Asia and Africa. It is cultivated in home gardens in India, Sri
Lanka, Malaysia Moluccas (Indonesia), Philippine Islands and South East Asia.
20.1.1 Botanical notes
The plant attains a height of maximum 30 cm but often is much shorter and has
fleshy, cylindrical aromatic root tubers. There are two (sometimes more) broad,
round leaves that are spread horizontally over the soil. Leaves are sessile, ovate,
deltoid-acuminate, thin and deep green. Petioles are short channeled; flowers irregular,
bisexual, white, 6–12 from the center of the plant between the leaves, fragrant and
opening successively; bracts lanceolate, green, short, calyx long as the outer bracts,
short cylindrical, petals three, corolla tube 2.5 cm long, lanceolate, pure white, stamen
one, perfect, filament short, arcuate, anther two celled, cells discreet. Flowering
starts in June and ends in September, with peak flowering during July to August.
20 Galanga.....................................................................................................
P. N. Ravindran and G. S. Pillai, Centre for Medicinal Plants Research,
India