348 Handbook of herbs and spices
The underground part consists mainly of one or more prominent fairly big, vertically
oriented tuberous rootstocks together with several smaller secondary tubers and a
cluster of roots. The main tuber has several transverse or horizontal annular scars of
scale leaves. Directly attached to these nodes are a few smaller tubers, which are also
vertically oriented. Several roots arise from the rhizomes, they are either fibrous and
long or short and thick. The latter roots bear at their tips tubers of various forms
(oval, conical or rarely spherical). These tubers are succulent and watery and differ
from the rhizomes.
A mature tuber in transverse section appears more or less circular in outline and
shows a narrow light brownish border and a central well marked stele and a narrow
cortex in between. A number of small vascular bundles are found scattered throughout
the parenchymatous ground tissue. Leaf epidermal morphology of 12 species of
Zingibearceae was compared and K. galanga showed the highest stomatal index
(Gogoi et al., 2002). Variation in leaf anatomical features could be effectively used
to distinguish species difference (Hussin et al., 2001). The somatic chromosome
number of K. galanga is 2n = 54 (Ramachandran, 1969). Beltram and Kam (1984)
reported that the Asiatic Kaempferia species have x = 11 and that of African species
have x = 14. Pollen morphology studies revealed the absence of exine in Kaempferia
and palynologically Alpinia, Amomum, Zingiber and Kaempferia constitute one group
(Mangaly and Nayar, 1990).
Kurian and Nybe (2003) assembled a collection of 30 genotypes and evaluated
them for yield and quality associated characters. They reported that all the characters
except numbers of leaves showed a significant difference among the collections.
They have identified two high-yielding and high-quality lines and these were released
for cultivation under the name ‘Kasthuri’ and ‘Rajani’.
Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles generated from six species
of Kaempferia species was used to analyze the degree of relationship of other genera
(Vanijajiva et al., 2005) and also characterization of cultivars (Pojanagaroon et al.,2004).
20.2 Cultivation and production.............................................................
Galanga requires fertile sandy soil and a warm humid climate. It thrives well up to an
elevation of about 1500 m above MSL. A well-distributed annual rainfall of 1500–
3000 mm is required during the growing period and dry spells during land preparation
and harvesting. The species is propagated by rhizome fragments. Mother rhizomes
are superior compared to fingers. The rhizome bits are planted on beds of 1–2 m
width and 25 cm height at a spacing of 40–60 cm^2 (Anonymous, 1981; Bhattacharjee,
2000). About 750 kg of seed rhizomes per hectare is required. Planting during the
third week of May gave significantly higher rhizome and oil yields.
The performance of three ecotypes of K. galanga under 70 and 50% shading, and
10 and 20 cm tillage depths was investigated in an experiment conducted in Kerala,
India during 2001–2. High rhizome yield was correlated with high P, K and Ca
contents while high essential oil content was correlated with high Mg, S, Mn and Zn
contents in the rhizome. Rhizome yield was higher at shallower tillage depth and
higher light intensity, while essential oil yield was higher at deeper tillage depth and
lower light intensity. Low light intensity increased the biosynthesis of oleoresin and
essential oils in the rhizomes, as well as the contents of Ca, Mg, Mn and Zn. Cv.
Thodupuzha showed the highest rhizome yield, while cv. Echippara showed the