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Alpinia officinarum Hance. (Zingiberaceae)

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Handbook of 200 Medicinal Plants

Abstract

This ginger -like perennial, leafy-stemmed plant is native to southern China and northern Vietnam, but also grows in Thailand and Japan, and is cultivated in India. The rhizomes are aromatic, stomachic, stimulant and carminative, and used to relieve flatulence, promote digestion and prevent vomiting due to indigestible food, and help reduce polyuria of diabetes. Avicenna recognized it as stomachic and stimulant, useful for phlegmatic persons, and in humidity of the stomach; it promotes digestion by its heat and the secretions it causes in the stomach, and thus relieves colic; gives fragrance to the breath, and warms the kidneys; it sets the semen in commotion, and when a piece of it is held in mouth it occasions erections of the membrum virile. The rhizomes are one of the most commonly used drugs in TCM to treat fungal vaginitis, and galangin is used as a food additive. Rhizomes contain the oily, acrid resin galangol, sesquiterpene, essential oil, dioxyflavonol, β-sitosterol, emodin, quercetin, a number of glycosides, phenylpropanoids with antioxidative activity, and galangin, quercetin and kaempferol as the main flavonoids, with antifungal activity. Rhizomes supplemented in high-fat diet of hamsters completely prevented enlargement of liver, kidney and spleen, and the rise in serum TC, TGs, LDL-C, and LDL-C/HDL-C ratio, and increased activities of antioxidant enzymes. Ethanol rhizome extract to high fat diet-fed rats lowered body weight gain, and decreased TC, TGs, LDL-C levels, and leptin content. The HDL-C and the ratio of HDL-C/TC also significantly improved. Antiobesity effect of ethanol extract is suggested to be due to suppression of adipogenic and lipogenic genes.

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  1. Stockton, CA, USA

    Shahid Akbar

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Akbar, S. (2020). Alpinia officinarum Hance. (Zingiberaceae). In: Handbook of 200 Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16807-0_20

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