Curcuma purpurascens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Curcuma purpurascens Blume

Protologue: Enum. pl. Javae 1: 46 (1827).

• Indonesia: koneng pinggang, koneng tinggang (Sundanese), temu tis (Javanese).

West and Central Java.

Rhizomes are used against tussis and, when mixed with Alyxia stellata (Forst.) Roem. & Schultes, applied as a poultice after childbirth. The main tubers contain extractable starch. The tender central parts of the shoots and young rhizomes are eaten fresh or cooked as "lalab".

• A herb with branched rhizome, outside and inside orange-yellow with whitish tips.
• Leaf blades elliptical, 55-70 cm × 19-23 cm, green but purple along the midrib above.
• Inflorescence terminal on a leafy shoot, bracts pale green, coma bracts white at base and pale green towards the top or almost entirely white, outside pale brown spotted at the top.
• Corolla about 5 cm long, white; labellum about 17 mm × 17 mm, pale creamy yellow with a dark yellow median band, other staminodes pale creamy yellow, anther with long spurs.

C. purpurascens grows spontaneously in teak forest. It is cultivated up to 1000 m altitude.

• 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.
• Darwis SN, Madjo Indo, A.B.D. & Hasiyah, S., 1991. Tumbuhan obat famili Zingiberaceae [Medicinal plants of the Zingiberaceae]. Seri Pengembangan No. 17. Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Tanaman Industri, Bogor, Indonesia. 103 pp.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

• Curcuma (Medicinal plants)

• Trimurti H. Wardini & Budi Prakoso