Galangal

[Guest guest]

Dear herbalists,

Whilst researching Wolfberry (MATRIMONY VINE - LlYCIUM ARBRATUM) I

came across this interesting post on Galangal -as you may recall it is a

favourite Herb of mine......................................Love Penny

 

 

 

 

Galangal

Ingrid Naiman

http://www.kitchendoctor.com/galangal.html

 

 

Just had your first taste of Tom Kha Gai and your senses are still

reeling from the exotic citrus flavor of something that clearly was

not a fruit? Did you bite into something so exotic and pleasant that

you thought about forgetting the main course and simply ordering

more soup? The “kha” in that soup is a

fantastic member of the ginger family called galanga or galangal.

It is native to Southern China and Thailand but was introduced to

Europe in the 9th century, almost 500 years before Marco Polo.

Galangal changed my world view, and to it I owe more than a

thousand culinary delights as well as excellent digestion. Also,

thanks to galangal, my mind became unfettered by the history I learned

in school; and I was moved to rebuild my intellectual world as well

as my herbal pharmacy.

History

 

Imagine zealous, sword brandishing Christian knights left for dead

on battlefields of the Holy Land depending on Jewish and Islamic

doctors to heal them. Many of these knights spent years in the

foment of spiritual and academic conflict, only to return ransformed by

the world from whence the

Sun rose.

The Middle East is appropriately named “middle” because it has been

a crossroads for eons, a place where prophets and physicians

meandered among camels and caravans hearing the tales of those

whose journeys originated in yet unknown parts of the world.

 

Why galangal? Well, my love relationship with this delicious and

fascinating herb was part three of my romance with the ginger

family, an affair that began in Hawaii with turmeric and moved to ginger

and finally its close cousin, galangal, the culinary crown of these

beautiful tropical plants.

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was one of the foremost herbal

authorities of her day. I had researched her formulas for my book

on botanical cancer treatments and discovered, much to my

amazement, that galangal was so highly revered by her that she actually

wrote that it had been given by God to provide protection against

illness. “The spice of life,” as she called galangal appears in many

Hildegard formulas.

For instance, Hildegard had a formula for deafness due to catarrh

or infection in which galangal, called “catarrh root,” was the

cornerstone. She said to take galangal and one-third as much aloe

powder as galangal plus twice as much oregano as aloe and some

peach leaves. These were mixed into a powder as taken daily as

digestive aids, both on an empty stomach as well as a few pinches with

the last bite of each meal.

For Hildegard, this remedy was not just a little formula for

deafness, but a major focus of intent because Hildegard was, in

addition, to her herbal erudition an accomplished musician, not just

a composer, but a visionary who understood the profound

relationship of hearing to health.

In Hildegard’s medicine, the powerful adjudicators of fate, the

determinants of happiness or misfortune as well as health or

sickness, depend on hearing. She felt that metabolism is affected

by the liver which, in turn, has a direct relationship to the ears

and hearing. Harsh sounds can disturb bodily fluids, and fluids

that contact blood vessels impact hearing when they reach the ears.

Hildegard believed that health is earned or forfeited partly as a

consequence of what we hear. To offset the shock to the liver of

sounds that undermine health, Hildegard composed scores of chants and

a musical drama called “Ordo Virtutem,” and, as we see, she also

prescribed this interesting galangal

formula as a digestive aid.

Galangal was also the principle herb of Hildegard’s three-week cure

for heart problems. She had a pill, a juice, and a powder for

heart pain. The pills were to be taken three times a day, after

meals during the first week and between meals for the next two

weeks. The pills consisted of equal parts of galangal and

pellitory, a perennial herb that is native to the Mediterranean as far

east as the Middle

East, and a quarter as much white pepper. These were to mixed with

a meal made from fava beans. It was moistened with fenugreek juice

or wine. These pills reduce heart pain.

The second part of her remedy relied on licorice and fennel seeds,

one part licorice to five parts fennel and five parts sugar and a

little honey. These were mixed with water. The powder used white

pepper, one-third as much cumin and fenugreek as pepper. These were

powdered and put on bread. These remedies were used to reduce pain

and the fear that, in her estimation, brings on heart attacks.

Hildegard regarded galangal mainly as a potent aid to digestion and

quick reliever of pain, such as the pain associated with angina

pectoris, heart attacks, and gall bladder symptoms. The heart

symptoms are secondary to the gastric distress, which, if relieved,

eases cardiac pressure. Physicians in

Germany who have taken up Hildegard Medicine as their calling have

reported that galangal is as effective as nitroglycerin, but it has

absolutely no harmful side effects. These same researchers point

out that Hildegard, with her mystical vision, was the first and thus far

the only herbalist to note the effect of galangal as heart pain

reliever:

Whoever has heart pain and is weak in the heart should

instantly eat enough galangal, and he or she will be well

again.

 

Physica

According to contemporary herbal sources, galangal is a warming,

digestive tonic with a stimulating and carminative effect on

digestion. Simply stated, it promotes the secretion of gastric juices,

aids peristalsis, and relieves gas in the gastrointestinal tract.

Anyone who has tasted galangal knows this to

be true; they may even recognize that it dispels those disturbing

gases that make one want to heave after a heavy meal. What is less

well known is that these very same gases, by-products of

fermentation when digestive action is not strong enough to metabolize an

entire meal, circulate throughout the system causing spasms,

everything from hiccups to sharp cardiac pains. What carminative

spices do is neutralize the gases so that they cease to exist! By doing

this, the many

symptoms of the invisible but gusty winds subside.

 

On a psychological level, the predominant symptom of wind or air is

anxiety, what I refer to as “groundless fears,” worries based on

“nothing.” When someone’s system is overexcited by excess air, the

person finds it harder to focus. As concentration is impaired, people

tend to make careless mistakes. They “lose their centers” and

begin running on nervous energy, which, of course, causes a

lot of wear and tear on the body as well as psyche. For instance,

in rushing into a car to get somewhere in a hurry, one may get

halfway down the block only to ask whether the front door was

locked on the way out. Odds favor that one locked the door because this

is something one does on auto pilot; but with excess air, one

ceases to be sure.

The question is whether to go home and check the front door and

risk being even later to one’s next appointment or to go where one

is going and worry all day about the front door. What is so

intriguing about carminative herbs is that these psychosomatic

symptoms that seem to have no basis in physiology subside when wind

relieving foods and spices are used. In all my carminative

formulas, galangal plays a key role. I have it in my teas and

intestinal formulas because, like Hildegard, I have found it to be

without equal. I even put galangal in some of the medicinal jams that I

make.

Like most spices, galangal promotes digestion, assimilation, and

elimination. According to Ayurveda, my own particular area of

intense study, food that is not metabolized forms a substance called

“ama”

in Sanskrit, probably a term very close in meaning to Hildegard’s

catarrh. Ama is a sticky substance, a metabolic a residual that

forms when the anabolic and catabolic processes are not in perfect

balance.

When people have low metabolisms, their output of saliva and

gastric juices as well as insulin and enzymes are insufficient to

complete digestion of an ordinary meal. In such instances, some food

is broken down by fermentation instead of digestion. This

fermentation causes a host of abdominal

rumblings as well as distention and other miseries. Heartburn

comes after the bloating and discomfort.

Galangal is the herb of choice in relieving both the short- and

long-term consequences both of sluggish metabolism and overeating,

a holiday risk. Personally, I prefer, as the Thais do, to cook my food

with spices so that the food itself is easier to digest, but

digestive and carminative herbs can also be taken as supplements or

post-digestive tonics, sort of like an after dinner aperitif. A

chocolate covered mint is hardly comparable to galangal!

 

Today, galangal is available in the frozen food section in Asian

food stores, as a powder in the spice department, and as a cut and

sifted herb from bulk herb suppliers. This is the form I use in my

teas. It is tangier than the powder. It has an incredible aroma

of its own but combines well with other carminative spices such as

star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper. These spices can

be added to a pot of one’s favorite tea, making a “masala chai” or,

for those inclined, they greatly enhance another traditional winter

favorite, hot buttered rum!

Hildegard used a system of medicine not unlike my own, but I

suspect it was traditional and taught in such places as Salerno and

Padua a thousand years ago. In this system, the perils of wind, fear

and pain, are offset by the virtues of warmth, which, in turn,

impart courage. But one does not have to be brave to enjoy

galangal: so delicious is galangal that Hildegard used galangal powder

in warm wine as a reward after more assertive treatments for the

serious pains of rheumatism, arthritis, lumbago, and sciatica.

Galangal also holds a place of honor in today’s scientific world.

Besides aiding digestion and relieving gastric distress, it is

useful in alleviating the dizziness and nausea associated with morning

sickness as well as motion sickness. Its antifungal and

antibacterial properties have been found effective in treatment of

candida albicans and even the greatly feared anthrax pathogen that is

being used in bacteriological warfare. Untreated, anthrax is

regarded as 100% fatal if inhaled, but galangal confers major

protection against this deadly germ.

As a culinary spice, there is virtually no such thing as an

overdose. One can use galangal to enhance the flavor or

digestibility of breakfast cereals, casseroles, curry dishes, and even

desserts such as puddings and ice cream. As a medicine, galangal

can be taken in pills or capsules as well as powders. Since galangal

is a food spice, there are no cumulative side effects or

contraindications for

its daily use by those who enjoy the taste or need the extra

support for digestion. Elderly people in particular will generally

find that galangal promotes a sense of clarity and well being that is

often increasingly hard to maintain. People with poor circulation

whose complaints increase in the winter will also find galangal

useful in improving blood circulation to the hands and feet . . . and

not to forget the ears, a place where clogging is a source of both

social embarrassment and aesthetic loss. Galangal will gently and

gradually remove the deposits that obstruct both circulation and the

glory of the symphonic harmony we enjoy so much and upon which we

depend, according to Hildegard, for our health.