Galangal 357
21.1 Introduction
Alpinia galanga (L.) Sw. (Zingiberaceae) is commonly known by various names as
galangal, greater galangal, Java galangal and Siamese ginger (English). The related
species are A. officinarum Hance and A. calcarata Rosc., which are known as lesser
galangal. All the three species have more or less similar properties and uses and
hence in trade practically no distinction is made among them. Data on production,
consumption and trade individually are not reliable because traders make no distinction
between A. galanga, A. calcarata and A. officinarum; all the three are used as the
source plants for the Ayurvedic raw drug ‘raasna’. India is a major supplier along
with Thailand and Indonesia (Scheffer and Jansen, 1999), however, its volatile oil
attracts more international interest because of its high medicinal value (http://
http://www.indianspices.com)..)
Galangal is a native of Indonesia though the exact origin is not known, but has
become naturalized in many parts of South and South-East Asian countries. Oldest
reports about its use and existence are from Southern China and Java. It is of frequent
occurrence in the sub-Himalayan region of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. At present,
A. galanga is cultivated in all South-East Asian countries, India, Bangladesh, China
and Surinam (Scheffer and Jansen, 1999). It shows exuberant growth along the
eastern Himalayas and in southwest India, and is cultivated throughout the Western
Ghats (Warrier et al., 1994). India exports galangal in different forms (http://
http://www.indianspices.com)..) Production in South East Asia must be considerable as it is
a common spice used daily by millions of people, however, no reliable data are
available. It is mostly cultivated in home gardens and organized plantations do not
exist. The Netherlands imports yearly over 100 tons of fresh rhizomes and about 30
tons of dried rhizomes. The main suppliers are Thailand, Indonesia and India. (Scheffer
and Jansen, 1999). Recent reviews on Alpinia can be found in Tewari et al. (1999)
and Gupta and Tandon (2004).
21 Galangal....................................................................................................
P. N. Ravindran and I. Balachandran, Centre for Medicinal Plants
Research, India