History and Lore

A member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), galangal is a leafy perennial herb with stems that grow to nearly 6 feet/2 meters tall, long dark green sword-shaped leaves, and robust underground rhizomes. The word galangal comes from the Cantonese ko-liang-kiang, which means “a mild ginger from Ko,” the ancient name for a prefecture in Guangdong Province. Interestingly, according to Frederich Flückiger and Daniel Hansbury, who published a history of drugs of vegetable origin in 1879, galangal was being used by the Arabs as early as the ninth century, suggesting they knew about galangal and its origin before the Europeans. Marco Polo noted its cultivation in southern China and Java in the thirteenth century. Flückiger and Hansbury also write of its popularity in medieval Europe, especially England, where it was used fresh and dried.