''Kaempferia parviflora'', the Thai black ginger, Thai ginseng or ''krachai dum'', is an

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

in the family

Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Af ...

, native to

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. Kaempferia parviflora has been the subject of increased scientific interest in recent years. In a systematic review in 2016, 683 records and 7 studies were analyzed, with a reference that krachai dum significantly increased hand

grip strength Grip strength is the force applied by the hand to pull on or suspend from objects and is a specific part of hand strength. Optimum-sized objects permit the hand to wrap around a cylindrical shape with a diameter from one to three inches. Stair ra ...

and enhanced the response to sexual erotic stimuli. An earlier study found that acute dosing did not have an effect on sprint and endurance exercise in humans, but indicated that chronic effects or actions in other populations cannot be excluded. A study from 2007 found that the ethanolic extract but not the volatile oil of kaempferia parviflora had antiallergic properties.

References

Medicinal plants of Asia parviflora Flora of Asia Southeast Asian traditional medicine {{zingiberales-stub