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The Galangal plant (Galanga, Blue Ginger) is a rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
 with culinary and medicinal uses ( ("Ka") , Malay: lengkuas (Alpinia galangal), Traditional Mandarin: ??, Simplified Mandarin: ??, T:???/S:???, Cantonese: lam keong, ??, Vietnamese: Ri?ng).






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Galangal


The Galangal plant (Galanga, Blue Ginger) is a rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
 with culinary and medicinal uses ( ("Ka") , Malay: lengkuas (Alpinia galangal), Traditional Mandarin: ??, Simplified Mandarin: ??, T:???/S:???, Cantonese: lam keong, ??, Vietnamese: Ri?ng). It used in various oriental cuisines (for example in Thai cuisine Tom Yum
Tom yum

Tom yum is a soup originating from Thailand. It is perhaps one of the most famous dishes in Thai cuisine. It is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and has been popularized around the world....
 soups and Dtom Kha Gai, and throughout Indonesian cuisine, for example, in Nasi Goreng
Nasi goreng

Nasi goreng, literally meaning "fried rice" in Indonesian language and Malay language, can refer simply to fried pre-cooked rice, to a meal including fried rice accompanied with other items, or to a more complicated fried rice, typically spiced with tamarind and chilli and including other ingredients, particularly egg and prawns....
). Though it resembles the ginger that it is related to, there is little similarity in taste.

In its raw form, galangal has a citrus, earthy aroma, with hints of pine and soap in the flavor. It is available as a whole root, or cut or powdered. The whole fresh root is very hard, and slicing it requires a sharp knife. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic in parts of Southeast Asia. It is said to have the effect of an aphrodisiac
Aphrodisiac

An aphrodisiac is a substance which is used in the belief that it increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek mythology of sensuality....
, and act as a stimulant. In the Indonesian language
Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Malay language from the Riau islands in western Indonesia, today called Riau Indonesian....
, greater galangal is called lengkuas or laos and lesser galangal
Lesser galangal

Lesser galangal or Alpinia officinarum is a plant in the Zingiberaceae. The rhizome was widely used in ancient and medieval Europe. The rhizome is smaller than greater galangal....
 is called kencur. It is also known as galanggal, and somewhat confusingly galingale, which is also the name for several plants of the unrelated Cyperus
Cyperus

Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of Cyperaceaes, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic ecosystem and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep....
 genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of sedge
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
s (also with aromatic rhizomes).

The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia
Alpinia

Alpinia is a genus of plants, with more than 230 species from the Ginger family .DNA sequence-based methods have shown that this genus is polyphyletic....
, and in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae
Zingiberaceae

Zingiberaceae, or the Ginger family, is a family of flowering plants consisting of aromatic perennial plant herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes, comprising ca....
 (ginger family):

  • Alpinia galanga or greater galangal
  • Alpinia officinarum or lesser galangal
    Lesser galangal

    Lesser galangal or Alpinia officinarum is a plant in the Zingiberaceae. The rhizome was widely used in ancient and medieval Europe. The rhizome is smaller than greater galangal....
  • Kaempferia galanga
    Kaempferia galanga

    Kaempferia galanga, commonly known as aromatic ginger, sand ginger or resurrection lily, is a monocotyledonous plant in the Zingiberaceae....
    , also called lesser galangal or sand ginger
  • Boesenbergia pandurata, also called Chinese ginger or fingerroot


Alpinia galanga is also known as Chewing John, Little John Chew and galanga root. It is used in African-American folk medicine and hoodoo folk magic.

See also

  • Alpinia galanga
    Alpinia galanga

    Alpinia galanga, a plant in the Zingiberaceae, is an herb used in cooking, especially in Cuisine of Indonesia and Cuisine of Thailand. It is one of four plants known as galangal, and is differentiated from the others with the common name greater galangal....
  • Lesser galangal
    Lesser galangal

    Lesser galangal or Alpinia officinarum is a plant in the Zingiberaceae. The rhizome was widely used in ancient and medieval Europe. The rhizome is smaller than greater galangal....


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