Kaempferia rotunda (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Kaempferia rotunda L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 3 (1753).

Synonyms

• Kaempferia longa Jacq. (1798).

Vernacular names

• Round-rooted galangal (En)
• Indonesia: kunci pepet, kunir putih (Javanese), temu rapet (eastern Sumatra)
• Malaysia: kencur, kunyit putih, temu putih (Peninsular)
• Philippines: gisol na bilog (general)
• Thailand: waan nonlap (Chiang Mai), waan haao non (Ratchaburi), ueang din (northern)
• Vietnam: cẩm dia la, ngải máu.

Distribution

Possibly native to Indo-China, but nowadays cultivated almost throughout tropical Asia, mainly as an ornamental but especially in South-East Asia also for medicinal purposes; regularly escaping from cultivation.

Uses

In Indonesia, rhizomes are used to treat abdominal illness; the watery little corms are considered cooling. In the Philippines, rhizomes are used internally to treat gastric complaints, and externally, mixed with oil, as a cicatrizant. They are also used in perfumery and as a means to preserve cloth from insects. Leaves and rhizomes are eaten fresh or cooked as a vegetable and used in cosmetic powder and as a food flavouring agent.

Observations

• A small herb.
• Leaves (2-)3-5, erect, petiolate, sheaths 7-24 cm long, blade oblong-lanceolate to elliptical, (7-)12-25(-36) cm × 4-7(-11) cm, gradually acuminate, glabrous above, puberulous below, often flamed or marked.
• Inflorescence appearing before the leaves on stems with rudimentary leaves, on a well-developed peduncle, 4-16-flowered.
• Calyx 3-7 cm long, white or greenish, corolla white, interruptedly striped-punctate, tube 3.5-7 cm long, lobes 3.5-7 cm long, labellum obcordate, divided halfway or further, 4-7 cm × 2-4 cm, purple with yellowish midrib, other staminodes elliptical to linear, 3-5 cm long, white or lilac, fertile stamen 0.8-2.5 cm long, connective 2-4-lobed.

K. rotunda grows well in teak forest, open lower montane forest, old bamboo forest, but also in open grassland, up to 1300 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [97] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• [202] Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.
• [455] Gagnepain, F. 1908. Zingibéracées [Zingiberaceae]. In: Gagnepain, F. (Editor): Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine [General flora of Indo-China]. Vol. 6. Masson & Cie, Paris, France. pp. 25-121.
• [580] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• [615] Holttum, R.E., 1950. The Zingiberaceae of the Malay Peninsula. Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore 13(1): 1-249.
• [875] Lock, J.M., 1985. Zingiberaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor): Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands & Boston, United States. 37 pp.
• [1066] Ochse, J.J. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1980. Vegetables of the Dutch East Indies. 3rd English edition (translation of 'Indische groenten', 1931). Asher & Co., Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 1061 pp.
• [1126] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
• [1128] Pételot, A., 1952-1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1372] Sirirugsa, P., 1992. Taxonomy of the genus Kaempferia (Zingiberaceae) in Thailand. Thai Forest Bulletin (Botany) 19: 1-15.
• [1496] Valeton, T., 1918. New notes on the Zingiberaceae of Java and the Malayan Archipelago. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg, Série II, 27: 1-167.

Main genus page

• Kaempferia (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Halijah Ibrahim