GALANGAL

galangal, formerly written "galingale," and sometimes "garingal," _rhizoma galangae_ (arab. _kholinjan_;[1] ger. _galgantwurzel_; fr. _racine de galanga_), a drug, now obsolete, with an aromatic taste like that of mingled ginger and pepper. lesser galangal root, _radix galangae minoris_, the ordinary galangal of commerce, is the dried rhizome of _alpinia officinarum_, a plant of the natural order zingiberaceae, growing in the chinese island of hainan, where it is cultivated, and probably also in the woods of the southern provinces of china. the plant is closely allied to _alpinia calcarata_, the rhizome of which is sold in the bazaars of some parts of india as a sort of galangal. its stems attain a length of about 4 ft., and its leaves are slender, lanceolate and light-green, and have a hot taste; the flowers are white with red veins, and in simple racemes; the roots form dense masses, sometimes more than a foot in diameter; and the rhizomes grow horizontally, and are 3/4 in. or less in thickness. galangal seems to have been unknown to the ancient greeks and romans, and to have been first introduced into europe by arabian physicians. it is mentioned in the writings of ibn khurdadbah, an arabian geographer who flourished in the latter half of the 9th century, and "gallengar" (gallingale or galangal) is one of the ingredients in an anglo-saxon receipt for a "wen salve" (see o. cockayne, _saxon leechdoms_, vol. iii. p. 13). in the middle ages, as at present in livonia, esthonia and central russia, galangal was in esteem in europe both as a medicine and a spice, and in china it is still employed as a therapeutic agent. its chief consumption is in russia, where it is used as a cattle-medicine, and as a flavouring for liqueurs. footnote: [1] apparently derived from the chinese _kau-liang-kiang_, i.e. kau-liang ginger, the term applied by the chinese to galangal, after the prefecture kau-chau fu in canton province, formerly called kau-liang (see f. porter smith, _contrib. to the materia medica ... of china_, p. 9, 1871).