''Boesenbergia rotunda'' (, , , ), commonly known as Chinese keys, fingerroot, lesser galangal or Chinese ginger, is a medicinal and culinary herb from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. In English, the root has traditionally been called fingerroot, because the shape of the

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

resembles that of fingers growing out of a center piece.

Description

Fingerroot is a kind of ginger (''Zingiberaceae''). It is an annual crop and indigenous to southern

Yunnan Province Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, China, to west

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, growing in tropical rain forest. It has an

underground stem Underground stems are modified plant parts that derive from stem tissue but exist under the soil surface. They function as storage tissues for food and nutrients, facilitate the propagation of new clones, and aid in perennation (survival from one ...

, known as a rhizome. This spreads into many bunches in the same way as banana, ginger, galangal and

turmeric Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...

. These structures accumulate nutrients and the middle part is more swollen than the head and bottom part. The inner part has a range of colours and aromas depending on the variety of fingerroot. The above-ground part is composed of a leaf stalk that has a sheath covering it. The leaf sheaths are red, the blades are oval in shape and the apex of leaves are sharp. Chinese ginger is a herbaceous plant with a height of . The leaf is about long and wide. The middle of the petioles are deeply grooved. The flower appears between the leaf sheaths at the bottom of the trunk. The petals are white or light pink. Flowers bloom one at a time.

Common names

* Khmer: kcheay (ខ្ជាយ) * Indonesian: temu kunci * Javanese: kunci * Meitei: yai-macha * Myanmar: Hsei' Hpu (ဆိတ္ဖူး) * Sinhalese: haran kaha (හරං කහ) * Thai: krachai (กระชาย) * Vietnamese: ngải bún, nga truật

Uses

Fingerroot is known as temu kunci in Indonesian. It is widely used in

Javanese cuisine Javanese cuisine () is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major Native Indonesian, ethnic group in Indonesia in the provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java. Definition Javanese cuisine refers exclusively to the cuisine of Javan ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. In addition to its culinary uses, it is also specifically used as a spice, or as flavoring agents, dyes, or also traditional medicine. After its discovery, ''B. rotunda'' has been used as research material in rat studies and microbiological studies. In Thai cooking, fingerroot is called ''krachai'' (; ) and is an ingredient in dishes such as ''

kaeng tai pla ''Kaeng tai pla'' (, ) is a curry of southern Thai cuisine. Its name is derived from ''tai pla'', a salty sauce made from fermented fish entrails, which gives the curry a strong smell and flavor. This curry is usually served with fresh vegetabl ...

''. It is used in some '' kroeung'' pastes of

Cambodian cuisine Cambodian cuisine is the national cuisine of Cambodia. It reflects the varied culinary traditions of different ethnic groups in Cambodia, central of which is Khmer cuisine (, ), the nearly-two-thousand-year-old culinary tradition of the Khmer pe ...

and is known as ''k'cheay'' (). In the west it is usually found pickled or frozen. The rhizomes are commonly used as vegetables in main dishes or eaten raw when young. It is also used to help make fermented soya bean cake, also called

tempeh Tempe or tempeh (; , ) is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, '' Rhizopus oligosporus'' or '' Rhizopu ...

, a traditional Indonesian food. Its roots and rhizomes are cultivated in Indonesia, Indochina, and India in small homes and is also popularly used in flavorful curry dishes. Fingerroot is also incorporated into tonic mixtures such as the famous Indonesian tonic '' jamu''. It is sometimes confused with '' Alpinia officinarum'', another plant 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 ...

which is also known as lesser galangal.

Gallery

File:Flower of a fingerroot.jpg, The flower of a fingerroot (frontal view) File:Flower of a fingerroot (side view).jpg, The flower of a fingerroot (side view) File:Boesenbergia rotunda 1.jpg, Fingerroot rhizome

References

External links