Greater Galangal

Greater galangal is a plant of the ginger family whose rhizome is used mainly as an herb in Unani medicine and as a spice in Southeast Asian cookery. It is one of four plants called galangal, and it is also known as lengkuas and blue ginger. The page says it is native to South and Southeast Asia, that Java was its original centre of cultivation during the spice trade, and that it is now grown extensively in the Greater Sunda Islands and the Philippines. It is an evergreen perennial growing in clumps of stiff stalks up to 2 metres tall, with long leaves and red fruit. The rhizome has a pungent smell and a strong taste reminiscent of citrus, black pepper and pine needles. The page says Ayurveda treats it as rasna, a Vata-pacifying drug, and that Unani texts call it khulanjan.