Kaempferia galanga L.
Aromatic Ginger / Cakur (Bru.)
Description
Traditional Medicinal Uses
Ecology
Propagation
Distribution
Precaution
Terrestrial small herb that grows lying flat on the ground with main underground rootstock that can grow up to 30 cm tall. Leaves are usually 2 to 5 in number per shoot, growing in a rosette, sheathing, glossy, subsessile and glabrous at both surfaces or hairy abaxially. Leaf blade is broadly elliptic, acute at apex with entire or slightly wavy margin. It is an almost stemless plant. Rhizomes which are the true stems are whitish to yellowish and smell like camphor. Flowers are purplish-white, cross-shaped and few to many-flowered. Inflorescence in clusters arising from terminal branch
Root decoction is made as a herbal bath for after childbirth treatment. Leaves are heated over a fire and wrapped around joints of the limbs for arthritis relief. The plant exhibits antitumour and certain protein inhibition
It thrives on swampy and muddy areas with brackish water. It prefers silt, clay and humus soil under full sunlight.
Rhizome division and seeds.
Probably native to the Himalayas and southeastern China, and it is now naturalized in the tropics.BUtterfly GinGer
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