195

12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Curcuma in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Asiat. Res. 11: 335 (1810).

Indonesia: temu hitam (general), temu ireng (Javanese, Balinese), koneng hideung (Sundanese). Malaysia: temu erang, temu hitam (Peninsular). Thailand: waan mahaamek (central). Vietnam: ngh[eej] ten d[oof]ng.

Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Java; cultivated at least in Vietnam, Cambodia, Java and the Moluccas.

In Indo-China rhizomes are used as a medicine for colic. In Peninsular Malaysia they have been prescribed to treat asthma and cough, applied externally to scurvy, and suggested as an application for mental derangement. In Indonesia and Thailand, rhizomes are the chief ingredient of a decoction given to women after childbirth to accelerate the lochia. They are considered to be depurative and used both internally and externally for treating exanthema, and as a poultice to treat itch. Other medicinal applications are against obesity, rheumatism, and as an anthelmintic. During periods of famine the starch extracted from the rhizomes is used as a substitute for cassava or maize. A dye can be obtained from the rhizome.

A herb with rhizome up to 16 cm long and 3 cm thick, outside grey and shiny, tips pink, inside bluish or blue-green with white cortex; leaf sheaths to 50 cm long, blades elliptical to oblong-lanceolate, 30-80 cm x 9-20 cm, green with wide purplish-brown suffusion on each side of midrib on distal half; inflorescence on a separate shoot, bracts pale green, coma bracts purple; corolla about 4.5 cm long, deep crimson-pink; labellum about 17 mm x 17 mm, pale yellow with deep yellow median band, other staminodes longitudinally folded, pale yellow, anther spurred. Curcuma aeruginosa is found in grassy places and teak forest, at 400-750 m altitude.

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Trimurti H. Wardini & Budi Prakoso

Wardini, T.H. & Prakoso, B., 1999. Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb.. In: de Padua, L.S., Bunyapraphatsara, N. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea