Galangal

July 2nd, 2007

Botanical Name: Alpinia officinarum (HANCE.)
Family: N.O. Zingaberaceae or Scilaminae
Synonyms; Galanga. China Root. India Root. East India Catarrh Root. Lesser Galangal. Rhizoma Galangae. Gargaut. Colic
Root. Kaempferia Galanga.

Part Used: -Dried rhizome.
Habitat: China (Hainan Island), Java.

The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia, but in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae:

1.Alpinia galanga or greater galangal

Greater Galangal (laos): Used as a flavouring throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and parts of India. Orangey-brown skin with pale yellow or white interior. The rhizomes are longer than lesser galangal. Available as slices, 3mm (1/8 in) thick or powder.
Bouquet: Gingery and camphorous
Flavour: Pungent but less so than lesser galangal.
Hotness Scale: 5

2.Alpinia officinarum or lesser galangal

Lesser Galangal (kencur): Used as a flavouring in Indochina and Indonesia but not in Chinese cooking. The 8 x 2cm (3 x 3/4in) rhizome has a red-brown interior. The texture is fibrous. Available as slices or powder.
Bouquet: Aromatic and gingery
Flavour: Aromatic and pungent, peppery and gingerlike.
Heat Scale: 6

3.Kaempferia galanga, also called lesser galangal or sand ginger

Kaempferia Galangal: Used as a flavouring in South East Asia. Often identified as greater galangal. Red skin and white interior.
Bouquet: Sweet and sickly with pungent undertones.
Flavour: Like Bouquet but much stronger.
Heat Scale: 5

4.Boesenbergia pandurata, also called Chinese ginger or fingerroot

Plant Description and Cultivation:
Greater galangal: a tropical herbaceous plant of the ginger family reaching to about 2m (6 1/2ft). The blade-like leaves are long and wide, 50 x 9cm (18 x 31/2in); the flowers are greenish white with a dark-red veined tip. The fruits are red berries. The rhizomes are orange to brown and ringed at intervals by the yellowish remnants of atrophied leaf bases.
Lesser galangal: smaller than the greater as the name implies. The leaves are long and slender, roughly half the dimensions of the greater. The whole plant, rarely more than 1m (3 1/4ft) high, vaguely resembles an iris. The flowers are small, white with red streaks. The rhizomes are reddish brown, about 2cm (3/4in) in diameter. They are more pungent than the greater and are similarly ringed.
Kaempferia galangal: The rhizomes are reddish with a white interior. The plant is similar in appearance to lesser galangal.
Galangal is widely cultivated in South East Asia in a similar manner to ginger.
Preparation and Storage
Use like ginger, powdered, bruised or crushed. One slice of the root is equivalent to half a teaspoon of powder. Generally small quantities are specified in recipes, laos being used in larger amounts than kencur. The powders should be stored in airtight containers and used within a short space of time.

Aroma and Flavour:: Greater ganangal has a pine-like aroma with a corresponding pungent flavour. Lesser galangal is distinctly more aromatic with a stronger peppery taste, so when available it is used discreetly. It is well washed and cut into thin slices to add to earthy curries, which can accommodate its pungent aroma and strong taste.

Culinary Uses:

Galangal is used in all the cuisines of south-east Asia, particularly in seafood and chicken dishes. It is frequently pounded with onion, garlic, chillies and ginger to make a spice paste. Slices are added to Thai soups with shreds of lemon grass and lime leaves.

The use of greater galangal is confined to local Indonesian dishes such as curries. Although known in Europe since the Middle Ages, galangal is now used only in Far Eastern cookery from Indonesia, IndoChina, Malaya, Singapore and Thailand. Like ginger, galangal is a â€˜de-fisherâ€™ and so appears frequently in fish and shellfish recipes often with garlic, ginger, chilli and lemon or tamarind. Laos powder is more important than kencur and, as well as with fish, is used in a wide variety of dishes such as sauces, soups, satays and sambals, chicken, meat and vegetable curries. Although used in the often searingly hot Indonesian cookery, laos powder enhances dishes such as chicken delicately spiced with fennel and lemon grass and gently cooked in coconut milk. However, these mild dishes are usually accompanied by vegetable or fish sambals fiery with chili. â€˜A Cook they hadde with hem for the nones To boille the chiknes with the Marybones and poudre Marchant tart and galyngaleâ€™ (Chaucer, 1386)

The root has been used in Europe as a spice for over a thousand years, having probably been introduced by Arabian or Greek physicians, but it has now largely gone out of use except in Russia and India. Closely resembling ginger, it is used in Russia for flavouring vinegar and the liqueur ‘nastoika’: it is a favourite spice and medicine in Lithuania and Esthonia. Tartars prepare a kind of tea that contains it, and it is used by brewers. The reddishbrown powder is used as snuff, and in India the oil is valued in perfumery.

Constituents: The root contains a volatile oil, resin, galangol, kaempferid, galangin and alpinin, starch, etc. The active principles are the volatile oil and acrid resin. Galangin is dioxyflavanol, and has been obtained synthetically. Alcohol freely extracts all the properties, and for the fluid extract there should be no admixture of water or glycerin.

Attributed Medicinal Properties & Uses:

Galangal is used in medicines to treat nausea, flatulence, stomach problems and catarrh; in India it is also recommended as a cure for halitosis. It has anti-bacterial properties and is used in homeopathic medicines.

The genus Alpinia was named by Plumier after Prospero Alpino, a famous Italian botanist of the early seventeenth century. The name Galangal is derived from theArabic Khalanjan, perhaps a perversion of a Chinese word meaning ‘mild ginger.’
The drug has been known in Europe for seven centuries longer than its botanical origin, for it was only recognized in 1870, when specimens were examined that had been found near Tung-sai, in the extreme south of China, and later, on the island of Hainan, just opposite. The name of Alpinia officinarum was given to the herb, as the source of Lesser Galangal. The Greater Galangal is a native of Java (A. Galanga or Maranta Galanga), and is much larger, of an orange-brown colour, with a feebler taste and odour. It is occasionally seen at London drug sales, but is scarcely ever used. There is also a resemblance to A. calcarata.
The branched pieces of rhizome are from 1 1/2 to 3 inches in length, and seldom more than 3/4 inch thick. They are cut while fresh, and the pieces are usually cylindrical, marked at short intervals by narrow, whitish, somewhat raised rings, which are the scars left by former leaves. They are dark reddish-brown externally, and the section shows a dark centre surrounded by a wider, paler layer which becomes darker in drying. Their odour is aromatic, and their taste pungent and spicy. They are tough and difficult to break, the fracture being granular, with small, ligneous fibres interspersed throughout one side. The drug is exported, chiefly from Shanghai, in bales made of split cane, plaited, and bound round with cane.

Resembling ginger in its effects, galangal is an aromatic stimulant, carminative and stomachic. It is used against nausea, flatulence, dyspepsia, rheumatism, catarrh and enteritis. It also possesses tonic and antibacterial qualities and is used for these properties in veterinary and homeopathic medicine. In India it is used as a body deodorizer and halitosis remedy. Both galangals have been used in Europe and Asia as an aphrodisiac for centuries. Gerard (1597) says: â€˜they conduce to venery, and heate the too cold reines (loins).

Stimulant and carminative. It is especially useful in flatulence, dyspepsia, vomiting and sickness at stomach, being recommended as a remedy for sea-sickness. It tones up the tissues and is sometimes prescribed in fever. Homoeopaths use it as a stimulant. Galangal is used in cattle medicine, and the Arabs use it to make their horses fiery. It is included in several compound preparations, but is not now often employed alone.

The powder is used as a snuff for catarrh.

Dosage: From 15 to 30 grains in substance, and double in infusion. Fluid extract, 30 to 60 minims.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/galangal.html
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/galang01.html

http://www.hotel-club-thailand.com/thai-cooking/thai-spices.htm