GALANGAL. 



373 



Minor. 



usitata which should be found in the shop of every aromatarius. 1 is?i. 

 As might be expected, it is included in all the older pharmacopoeias 

 and antidotaria. 



Garcia D'Orta, first physician to the Portuguese Viceroy of 

 India at Goa, and a resident in India for thirty years, is, I 

 think, the first writer to point out (1563) that there are two Two Hnda 

 sorts of galangal the one, as he says, of smaller size and more of Galan S al - 

 potent virtues brought from China, the other a thicker and less 

 aromatic rhizome produced in Java. 2 



This distinction is perfectly correct. The greater galangal, 

 which is termed Radix galangce majoris, is yielded by Alpinia Major and 

 galanga, "VVilld. a plant of Java; 3 the lesser, called Radix 

 galangce minoris, or simply Radix galangce, is derived, as we 

 now know, from the plant which Dr. Hance has described as 

 A. officinarum. It is the latter drug alone that is at present 

 found in European commerce. 4 



The name galangal, galanga, or garingal, Galgant in German, 

 is derived from the Arabic khalanjan ; whether the word may 

 be a corruption of the Chinese name liang-kiang, signifying 

 mild ginger, I must leave it to others to decide. 



Let me say a few words regarding the uses of galangal. As 

 a medicine, the manifold virtues formerly ascribed to it must 

 be ignored ; the drug is an aromatic stimulant, and might take 

 the place of ginger, as indeed it does in some countries. That 

 it is still in use in Europe is evident from the exports from 

 China and from the considerable parcels offered in the public 

 drug sales of London. 5 The chief consumption, however, is 



1 Compendium Aromatariorum ; Bonon. 1488, fol. 



* Colloquios dos Simples e Drogas he cousas Medicinais da India; Goa, 

 1563, Colloquio 24. 



8 Maranta galanga, Linn. Sp. PI. and Swartz, Obs. Bot. 



4 Moodeen Sheriff, in his learned Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of 

 India (Madras, 1869), states that in the bazaars of Hyderabad and in some 

 other parts of India the rhizome of A Ipinia calcarata, Rose., is sold as a sort of 

 galangal ; and that a species of Alpinia growing in gardens about Madras, 

 which, conceiving it to be new to science, he has described and named as A. 

 Khulinjan, has a rhizome much resembling the lesser galangal of China. 



6 Three hundred bags, each 112lb., imported from Whampoa were offered 

 for sale by Messrs. Lewis and Peat, 27 Oct., 1870. The quantity was not 

 thought remarkable ; and I am assured that a single buyer will sometimes 

 purchase such a lot at one time for shipment to the continent. 



Arabic 

 Name. 



Uses. 





