Description

Aromatic Ginger is found primarily in open areas in southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia and India, but is also widely cultivated throughout SE Asia. The plant is used as an herb in cooking, especially in Thai cuisine. The plant has thick rounded leaves that lay flat on the ground. New leaves start growing in mid spring from the small dormant rhizomes. In summer, one or two flowers are produced successively from the centre of the growing tip. Flowering lasts over a two month period. The plants becomes dormant in winter - leaves die down in late autumn and rhizomes remain underground through winter. Dried or fresh rhizomes, which are very aromatic, are used in Asian cuisine as a spice. Aromatic Ginger commonly known as kencur, sand ginger, cutcherry, orresurrection lily, is a monocotyledonous plant in the ginger family and one of four plants called galangal. It is found primarily in open areas in Indonesia, southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia and India, but is also widely cultivated throughout Southeast Asia.

Characteristics:

Aromatic Ginger A perennial aromatic herb with very fragrant underground parts; leaves two or more, spreading flat on the ground, roundovate, thin, deep green, petioles very short, chanelled; flowers white with purplish spots in the axillary fascicles, corolla tube 2.5 cm long, connective of anther produced in to a quadrate two-lobed appendage; fruits oblong, 3-celled and 3- valved capsules, seeds arillate. The underground rhizome has one or more prominent, vertically oriented tuberous root stock and many small secondary tubers and roots, their tips becoming tuberous.

Medicinal Use:

Aromatic Ginger is an important medicinal plant and has been traditionally used to help restlessness, stress, anxiety, depression etc. in tropics and subtropics of Asia including Bangladesh, India, China, Japan and Indochina.