Galangal
Greater : Languas galangal, syn Alpinia galanga
Lesser: Languas officinarum, syn Alpina officinarum
Kaempferia: Kaempferia galanga, Kaempferia pandurata
Greater galangal is native to Java. It is widely used in Indonesia and Malaysia as a food flavouring and spice. Lesser galangal is native to China, growing mainly on the southeast coast. It is also grown in India and the rest of South East Asia. Although barely used in Europe today, both galangals were formerly imported in great quantity, as medicine and spice. Galangal was known to the ancient Indians, and has been in the West since the Middle Ages. Its stimulant and tonic properties are recognized by the Arabs who ginger up their horses with it, and by the Tartars, who take it in tea. In the East, it is taken powdered as a snuff, and is used in perfumery and in brewing.
Spice Description
The galangals are fascinating ginger-like spices used in South East Asia.
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
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
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
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.
Culinary Uses
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 ‘de-fisher’ 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. ‘A Cook they hadde with hem for the nones To boille the chiknes with the Marybones and poudre Marchant tart and galyngale’ (Chaucer, 1386)
Attributed Medicinal Properties
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: ‘they conduce to venery, and heate the too cold reines (loins)’.
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.
Other names
Galanga, Galengale, Galingale, Garingal
Greater: Big Galangal, Galangal Major, Java Galangal, Kaempferia, Siamese Ginger
Lesser: Aromatic Ginger, China Root, Chinese Ginger, Colic Root, East Indian Catarrh Root, East Indian Root, Gargaut, India Root, Siamese Ginger.
Greater
French: grand galanga
German: Galanga
Italian: galanga
Spanish: galanga
Arabic: khalanjan
Chinese: kaoliang-chiang, ko-liang-kiang
Indian: barakalinjan, kulanjan
Indonesian: laos
Lao: kha
Malay: languas, lenguas
Thai: kha
Lesser
French: galanga de la Chine, galanga vrai, petit galanga
Chinese: sa leung geung, sha geung fun
Malay: kunchor, zedoary
Sinhalese: ingurupiayati
Thai: krachai
Recipes using Galangal
Try Java Chicken, Spicy Chicken Soup with Noodles and Fish in Soya Sauce
Galangal is included in our Asian Spice Collection
Bibliographic References and Further Reading
เอกสารอ้างอิง:
1.เลขะกุล, คณิตา. 2536. ไม้ดอกและไม้ประดับ. พิมพ์ครั้งที่ 1. ด่านสุทธาการพิมพ์. กรุงเทพ.
2. มัจฉาชีพ, สมสุข. 2534. พืชสมุนไพร. พิมพ์ครั้งที่ 1. แพร่พิทยา. กรุงเทพ.
3.เหมือนวงษ์ญาติ, พเยาว์. 2529. ตำราวิทยาศาสตร์สมุนไพร. บริษัทเมดิคอลมีเดีย จำกัด.140 น.
4.Charles, DJ. et al. 1992. The essential oil of Alpinia galanga Willd. J Essent. Oil. Res.4 (1) : 81-82.
5.Chopra, IC. et al. 1957. Antibacterial properties of volatile principles from Alpinia galanga and Acorus caramus. Antibiot. Chemother. 7 : 378-383.
6., AM. and Scheffer, JJC. 1985. Acetoxychavicol acetate, an antifungal component of Alpinia galanga. Planta Med. 51 (6) : 507-511.
7.Scheffer, JJC. et al. 1981. Analysis of essential oils by combined liquid-solid and gas-liquid chromatography. Part V. Monoterpenes in the essential rhizome oil of Alpinia galanga (L.) Willd. Sci. Pharm. 49 : 337-346.
8.Zheng, GQ. et al. 1993. Potential anticarcinogenic natural products isolated from lemon grass oil and galanga root oil. J. Agri. Food. Chem. 41 (2) : 153-156
9. โหระพาดอทคอม
10.สำนักงานเกษตรจังหวัดสิงห์บุรี
11. สถาบันวิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยีแห่งประเทศไทย (วว.)
ภาพประกอบทางอินเทอร์เน็ต
12.คลังปัญญาไทย.http://www.panyathai.or.th/wiki/index.php/%E0%B8%82%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%B2
ทำให้มีความรู้เกี่ยวกับสมุนไพรพื้นบ้านที่ทุกบ้านปลูก........ดีมากจ๊ะน้องตาล....../ P NOOT
เป็นกำลังใจให้กับการทำงานนะจ๊ะ
ขอขอบพระคุณ คุณป้าอำไพ พี่นุช พี่Kumfun มากๆ น่ะค่ะ ที่ให้ความรู้ คำติชม ตลอดจนเเนะนำ ข้อคิดดีๆ ให้กับน้องตาลเสมอมา คำติชมเเละคำเเนะนำของพี่ๆ ทุกท่าน จะช่วยให้น้องตาลมีเเรงผลักดันในการทำงานเเละเป็นกำลังใจสำคัญสำหรับเเพทย์แผนไทยทุกคนในการทำงาน ตลอดจนสร้างสรรค์ผลงาน ให้ดียิ่งขึ้น เเละ น้องตาลจะนำคิดติชมของทุกท่านไปเเก้ไขข้อผิดพลาดเพื่อให้ผลงานดีขึ้นค่ะ