Gao Liang Jiang

Alpinia officinarum, lesser galangal or Gao Liang Jiang, is a tufted, rhizomatous perennial herb in the Zingiberaceae, native to southern China (especially Hainan and Guangdong) and now also cultivated in adjacent parts of Southeast Asia. The plant grows from a horizontal, cylindrical, branched rhizome 1 to 2 cm thick, reddish-brown on the outside with prominent annular leaf-scars and pale orange-yellow, intensely aromatic flesh on cutting. From the rhizome arise tufted leafy pseudostems 30 to 110 cm tall, each bearing two ranks of narrow, linear-lanceolate leaves 15 to 30 cm long and 1.2 to 2.5 cm wide, with a long-acuminate tip and glabrous, glossy green surfaces. The terminal inflorescence is a slender raceme 6 to 10 cm long bearing few flowers; each is white with conspicuous red veins on the labellum and pink stamen. The fruit is a small, globose, red capsule about 1 cm across. The dried rhizome is the medicinal drug, pungent and aromatic with cineole and galangol.