Galangal

Galangal Kulanjan

08-Feb-2005 - The Asian plant galangal, often used to flavour Thai curries, appears to both kill cancer cells and boost the cancer-fighting capacity of healthy cells, say researchers in the UK.

Botanical name: Alpinia galanga (Linn) Willd.
Family:Zingiberaceae.

Indian names are as follows:
Hindi and Bengali:Kulanjan
Gujarati:Kolanjan
Kannada:Rasmi, Sugandha vachi
Malayalam:Araatta, Perasatta
Marathi:Baripankijar, Koshikulinjan
Punjabi:Kulanjan
Sanskrit:Kulanja, Kulanjana
Sindhi:Kathi, Kunjar
Tamil:Sangandam Tittiram
Telugu:Peddumparashtram, Kachoramu
Urdu:Kulanjan.

Galangal is the dried rhizome or root of the plant, which grows mainly in the Eastern Himalayas and South West India. The plant is 1.8 to 2.1 meters high, and bears perennial rhizomes, which are deep, orange-brown in color, aromatic, pungent and bitter. The fruits are about 13 mm long, constricted in the middle and contain 3 to 6 seeds. The latter are slightly pungent, with an aroma similar to that of rhizome. Cut pieces of the rhizome of this species are known as `greater galangal`. The rhizome of `lesser galangal` is smaller and reddish-brown in color, and has a stronger odor and taste.

Galangal roots

Galangal is one of the spices which reached the European markets relatively early, for it is mentioned along with pepper in the literature of the Middle Ages where it received praise in various writings dealing with drugs, medicines etc.

Little published information on its composition or nutritive value is available. However, some useful information is available on its volatile oil.

Galangal oil, which is also known as `false ginger oil`, is a steam-distilled oil from the dried comminuted rhizomes of galangal. Galangal oil is a pale yellow to olive-brown liquid with an eucalyptus-cardamom-ginger-like odor and warming camphoraceous-like bitter taste.

It consists of methyl-cinnamate (48 %), cineol (20 to 30 %), some camphor and probably d-pinene. Leaves also yield a volatile oil.

There is variation in composition of rhizome oil reported by different scientists, which is naturally due to the variance in the volatile oil itself, the composition of which in turn is affected by a number of factors such as: area of cultivation, age of the plant, season and climatic condition, type of soil, time of harvest, method of distillation etc.

Galangal roots

Apart from being used as a spice, it has more elaborate use in various medicinal preparations. In indigenous medicine, the rhizomes are used in rheumatism and catarrhal affections, especially in bronchial catarrh. The drug is a depressant of the cardio-vascular system. It has important action on the bronchioles. The rhizome and its essential oil are useful in respiratory troubles, especially of children. The rhizomes are also carminative and stomachic.

In Malaysia, they are used as spice, and the fruits as substitute for cardamoms.

Galangal oil is used as a trace constituent in flavor studies but is rarely used in perfumery. It could, however, be of value in an oriental or spice type perfume formulations.

As on today galangal is not a popular spice recognized commercially. Its use mostly is local in nature. Even research conducted on this herb is inadequate.

Thai curry spice attacks cancer cells, shows lab study

08-Feb-2005 - The Asian plant galangal, often used to flavour Thai curries, appears to both kill cancer cells and boost the cancer-fighting capacity of healthy cells, say researchers in the UK.

The findings, based on laboratory research, were initially presented at a conference in 2002. However they have not gained widespread media attention until this week, following a spotlight on leading medicinal plants researcher Professor Peter Houghton based at King's College London.
The researcher says the work, which lends support to the traditional use of galangal in Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula against stomach cancer, could be published in a journal in the future.

"We have in a way gone back and tested anti-cancer activity already seen in animals. But no-one had looked at the biological activitiy of the plant and sought to explain it," he told NutraIngredients.com.

Houghton's PhD student Dr CC Lee isolated and purified several compounds from a lesser galangal (Alpinia officinarum) extract, two of which could activate the GST enzyme when added on their own to the liver cells.

GST, or glutathione S-transferases, is a detoxifying enzyme involved in excreting carcinogens from cells. Other research groups have already demonstrated that substances which increase the activity of GST prevent cells becoming cancerous.

These two compounds, which are also present in greater galangal, were more effective than the others at killing breast and lung cancer cells grown in culture.

"These laboratory experiments show that there is some basis to the claim that galangal could be used to treat cancer," said Professor Houghton.

Further tests indicated that a healthy cell type was more resilient to the chemicals than the cancerous cell types tested. One of the isolated chemicals was about three times more effective at killing the cancer cells than the healthy cells.

Furthermore, the effect of this chemical on the healthy cells seemed to be reversible, unlike its effect on the cancerous cells.

Professor Houghton added that the plant's dual action on cells is rare among traditional medicines.

"Normally extracts are able to kill cancer cells or boost healthy cells' natural defenses against cancer but galangal seems to do both," he said.

He added that the results do not support recommendations for consumption of the plant to fight cancer.

"We would need to carry out further tests, such as looking to see whether people who eat galangal on a daily basis are less likely to suffer from cancer than those who do not," said Professor Houghton.

The ginger-like root is also thought to help indigestion, colic and dysentery, as well as some skin conditions. In powdered form or as an alcoholic extract, galangal reportedly acts as a stimulant and an aphrodisiac.

New research shows that healthy people with high levels of anger, hostility or depression also have high blood levels of C-reactive protein, an indicator of inflammation of the arteries. More and more, heart experts are recognizing that this arterial inflammation is key to the cardiovascular disease process, and this latest study suggests reductions in anger might help reduce heart woes.

"Anger seems to predict an increased risk of heart disease in initially healthy individuals, and several studies have shown that," said study author Edward Suarez, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University. However, until now, no one had studied links between anger and inflammation. "This is the first step to link the behavior to this [heart disease] mechanism - one that's garnering a lot of attention" among cardiologists, he said.

The findings appear in the September issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

In the study, Suarez tested C-reactive protein (CRP) blood levels in 121 healthy, nonsmoking men and women between 18 and 65 years of age. On the same day, he also measured each participant's level of anger, hostility and depression using a series of standard psychological tests. He found that - in the absence of heart disease risk factors such as smoking, obesity and high blood pressure - high levels of these negative emotional states "significantly predicted the blood level of CRP." Those who were prone to anger, hostility or depression had two to three times higher CRP levels than their more mellow peers, the researchers said.

It's not yet clear why this association exists, but studies are under way to shed light on pathways by which anger or depression might encourage inflammation. In one study, Suarez plans to track patients for two years, to see if hotheaded individuals are any more likely to develop elevated CRP levels over time.

Other studies are planned that focus on anger's effect on stress hormones such as noradrenaline and norepinephrine. The latter hormone, in particular, works on a second chemical, nuclear factor-kappa B, "as a kind of 'off/on' switch" for inflammation," Suarez said. "When that switch is turned on, it begins a cascade of events that leads to the promotion or release of inflammatory proteins."

In the meantime, people concerned about their heart health might want to just "cool it" when tempers flare. "It's very important to pay attention to how we can change these behaviours," Suarez said. "I know it isn't easy, though."
"It's difficult to change patterns of behaviour that are intrinsic to who we are as individuals, so it's not going to be an overnight thing," he added. "But we can start by saying, 'What gets me angry?' and 'If I get angry, do I start to feel depressed and withdrawn from my social network?' " Also, take a stress break. "If a walk around the park can calm you down, do it," Suarez said.