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| Kaempferia galanga |
Plant | Kaempferia galanga | Kaempferia galanga, commonly known as kencur, aromatic ginger, sand ginger, cutcherry or resurrection lily, is a monocotyledonous plant in the ginger family.
It is found primarily in open areas in southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia and India, but is also widely cultivated throughout Southeast Asia. The plant is used as a herb in cooking in Indonesia, where it is called kencur, and especially in Javanese and Balinese cuisines. Kaempferia galanga has thick rounded leaves that lay flat on the ground. New leaves start growing in mid spring from the small dormant rthizomes. In summer, one or two flowers produced successively from the centre of the growing tip. Flowering lasts over a two month period. The white flowers (with a purple spot on the lip), are fugacious, appear singly in the center of the plant and attain approximately 1 in. (2 1/2 cm) in breadth.The leaves die down in late autumn and rhizomes remain underground through winter.
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| Kaempferia galanga |
Kaempferia galanga is essential for Jawanese cooking (Rijstafel) and often appears in the characteristically spicy-sweet foods of that island. Resembling ginger in its effects, galangal is an aromatic stimulant, carminative and stomachic. It is used against nausea, flatulence, dyspepsia, rheumatism, catarrh and enteritis.
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| Kaempferia galanga |
Pharmacology
The rhizomes of aromatic ginger have been reported to include cineol, borneol, 3-carene, camphene, kaempferol, kaempferide, cinnamaldehyde, p-methoxycinnamic acid, ethyl cinnamate and ethyl p-methoxycinnamate. Extracts of the plant using methanol have shown larvicidal activity against the second stage larvae of dog roundworms (Toxocara canis). It was also found to be effective as an amebicide in vitro against three species of Acanthamoeba, which cause granulomatous amebic encephalitis and amebic keratitis. In 1999, the rhizome extract was found to inhibit activity of Epstein-Barr virus. Further research has demonstrated the extract effectively kills larvae of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus and repels adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, both of which are serious disease vectors. As a result of these findings, research is underway to evaluate the plant extract's use as an insect repellent, with preliminary findings suggesting that it is not an irritant to the skin or rats.
The rhizomes of aromatic ginger have been reported to include cineol, borneol, 3-carene, camphene, kaempferol, kaempferide, cinnamaldehyde, p-methoxycinnamic acid, ethyl cinnamate and ethyl p-methoxycinnamate. Extracts of the plant using methanol have shown larvicidal activity against the second stage larvae of dog roundworms (Toxocara canis). It was also found to be effective as an amebicide in vitro against three species of Acanthamoeba, which cause granulomatous amebic encephalitis and amebic keratitis. In 1999, the rhizome extract was found to inhibit activity of Epstein-Barr virus. Further research has demonstrated the extract effectively kills larvae of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus and repels adult Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, both of which are serious disease vectors. As a result of these findings, research is underway to evaluate the plant extract's use as an insect repellent, with preliminary findings suggesting that it is not an irritant to the skin or rats.
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| Kaempferia galanga |
medicinal use
Kaempferia galanga cantains up to 2.5% of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate.In an anticancer assay, it was found that ethyl p-methoxycinnamate could inhibit the proliferation of the human hepatocellular liver carcinoma HepG2 cell line.
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