Olivia
Alpinia zerumbet
Scientific Classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Spermatophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Monocotyledonae
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Genus: Alpinia
Species: Alpinia zerumbet
Plant Type
Lance shaped broadleaved herbaceous evergreen perennial
Propagation by seed and vegetative division of the rhizomes
Flowers: Showy, Fragrant
Family: Zingiberaceae
Native Range: Eastern Asia
Height: 2.00 to 4.00 feet
Spread: 2.00 to 4.00 feet
Bloom Time: Seasonal bloomer
Bloom Description: White with yellow inside lips and red throat
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Other Names:
Alpinia officinarum, Catarrh Root, Alpinie, China Root, Colic Root, East India Catarrh Root, Chinese Ginger, East India Root, Galanga Camphré, Galanga, Galanga Minceur, Galangal Officinal, Galangal, Galangal Root, Gao Liang, Galgant, Gao Liang Jiang, Gingembre Rouge, Gargaut, India Root, Lesser Galangal, Radix Alpiniae Officinarum, Petit Galanga, Rasna, Racine de Galanga, Languas officinarum, Rhizome Galangae.
Grown around the world, introduced as a house plant for its striking flowers and variegated foliage, it is used in culinary cuisine and traditional remedies, the Alpina zerumbet is considered an invasive species capable of invading and dominating local vegetation causing a negative environmental impact. Prefers damp and sunny conditions the upright plants produce fleshy rhizomes similar to the aroma and resemblance to Zingiber officinale, culinary ginger.
Description
Alpina zerumbet can reach a height of 10 ft., but grown as introduced ornamentals only reach 3 to 4 ft. Leaves are showy and variegated yellow, cream or gold and some green striped on yellow. They produce showy flowers on the ends of mature growth, unlike most other gingers where they appear right from their rhizomes. The slightly fragrant, pearly white waxy flowers formed like a funnel with a light shade of pink outside and the lip in a shade of bright yellow marked in red streaks. Its buds resemble pearly seashells hence it earned the common name shell ginger. The striated fruits are rare. Birds feed on these and propagation occurs where it’s carried.
In the order of Zingiberales, Alpinia zerumbet is the largest in the ‘ginger’ family, Zingiberaceae. The horizontally appearing rhizomes are tuberous and rich in starch. It’s grown for its economic value as an essential aromatic spice apart from its ornamental worth. It is inclusive of about 53 genera scattered around the tropics of over 1200 species, with many grown for their importance as spice plants.
Alpinia zerumbet is named after the sixteenth-seventeenth century botanist Prospero Alpini
History
A. zerumbet is endemic to East Asia, used as a medicinal and food crop for hundreds of years, and spread around the world to tropical and subtropical regions as an ornamental and spice, and presently established around the world.
Uses
- As a culinary herb and spice
- Vegetable
- Essential oils
- Fibre
- Traditional/folklore medicine
- Ornamental Potted plant and landscape material
It is a substitute spice for Alpinia galangal and Zingiber officinale and subsidises the international ginger trade.
The flowers and rhizomes go for the extraction of their essential oils.
Culinary Use
Especially in Japan and China, they use the fragrant foliage for wrapping rice or fish, in cooking while in some parts of the world especially in Asia, the tender tips of young leaves, shoots and flowers consumed boiled as a vegetable.
The traditional Chinese dish called zongzi uses the leaf to wrap rice and the stuffing of different fillings.
In Japan, A. zerumbet in the local language of Okinawa calls it sannin, or getto in Japanese. Its foliage is used to wrap mochi rice and flavour noodles and sold in the market for making herbal teas.
The natives of Okinawan known to consume a traditional diet that contains shell ginger has a very long life expectancy. Recent research has examined the phytochemical that may be responsible for its effects on human longevity.
Medicinal Uses
The Alpinia plant is a relation to ginger. The plant’s horizontal rhizome goes towards making medicine.
Alpinia is used in the treatment of muscle spasms, fever, intestinal gas, and swelling (inflammation) and also applied to kill bacteria and used as a stimulant.
In Brazil and Okinawa, A. zerumbet is mentioned in using it in traditional folk medicine. In the Philippines, they use the leaves to make a decoction as a bath to treat fevers.
The rhizome is used to stimulate digestion, and to treat malaria, vomiting, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, gastralgia, and diarrhoea, while in China they use the plant as a treatment for vomiting, stomach disorders, and dyspepsia.
Chiefly in Brazil and Japan, the leaves are used to make tea to treat hypertension and as a diuretic medication.
Even the seeds are used to warm the stomach and revitalize the spleen.
They apply the rhizome as a sedative, astringent, carminative, and stomachic tonic in traditional medicine.
The applicable dosage of Alpinia will depend on quite a few issues such as age, health, and some other circumstances.
Not enough scientific information is available at present to regulate a suitable choice of dosages for Alpinia. It is always advisable to remember that natural products are not always essentially safe and doses can be vital. Alpinia has chemicals that block certain stages in swelling pathways.