Amomum aculeatum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Amomum aculeatum Roxb.

Protologue: Asiat. Res. 11: 344, t. 6 (1810).

Synonyms

• Amomum ciliatum Blume (1827),
• Amomum flavum Ridley (1909).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: parahulu, prahulu (Sundanese), wola waliyan (Javanese)
• Papua New Guinea: apiyamga (Gulf), qulengapaie (Morobe).

Distribution

Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia (Penang), Sumatra, Java, Papua New Guinea; sometimes cultivated in Java.

Uses

In Java drops of juice from the leaf-stalks are applied to the eyes of women after childbirth. In Papua New Guinea, leaves are chewed in combination with other plants and traditional salt to soothe headaches and backache. The sap is drunk to treat fever and influenza. The sourish and sweet fruits are edible.

Observations

• A large herb up to 400 cm tall, with stout and long underground rhizome and rather slender, up to 1.5 cm thick, leafy stems.
• Leaves lanceolate, 10-60 cm × 2-9 cm.
• Inflorescence with base in the ground, up to 10 cm long, dense and rounded, bracts about 3.5 cm × 1.5 cm, thin, brownish and soon disintegrating, bracteoles about 1 cm long, tubular at the base.
• Flowers pedicelled, far exserted from bracts, corolla tube about as long as calyx, lobes pale flesh-coloured to orange, labellum orange-yellow with many small crimson spots and lines, forming a closed cup with dorsal petal, anther with considerably spreading crest.
• Fruit 2-3.5 cm × 1.5-2 cm, dark purplish, covered with fleshy greenish spines.

A. aculeatum occurs in Java in primary forest and teak forest up to 800 m altitude.

Selected sources

• 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.
• Balun, L. & Holdsworth, D.K., 1988. Ethnomedicine of the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Part 1: The mountains around Kanabea and Kaintiba. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 26(1): 51-55.
• 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.
• Holdsworth, D.K. & Mahana, P., 1983. Traditional medicinal plants of the Huon Peninsula, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 21: 121-133.
• Holttum, R.E., 1950. The Zingiberaceae of the Malay Peninsula. Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore 13(1): 1-249.
• Ridley, H.N., 1922-1925. The flora of the Malay Peninsula. 5 volumes. Government of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States. L. Reeve & Co, London, United Kingdom.
• Valeton, T., 1904. Ueber neue und unvollständig bekannte Zingiberaceae aus West Java und Buitenzorg [About new and incompletely known Zingiberaceae from West Java]. Bulletin de l'Institut Botanique de Buitenzorg No 20. 99 pp.

Main genus page

• Amomum (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Nguyen Quoc Binh