Torch Ginger

Overview

Torch ginger (Etlingera elatior) is native to Indonesia, Malesia, and southern Thailand. It is distributed throughout South-East Asia, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Philippines, Australia (Queensland), and Polynesia. However, the species is widely cultivated and can be found naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. The plant is used locally as food and medicine.

Vernacular Names

Kecombrang; Bunga kecombrang; or, Honje (Indonesia), Huo ju jiang (Chinese), Kantan (Malaysia), Kaalaa (Thailand), Boca de dragón (Spanish), Antorcha (Puerto Rico), ‘Awapuhi ko‘oko‘o (USA/Hawaii), Bastón del Obispo (Colombia), Bastón de emperador (Costa Rica)

Agroecology

E. elatior grows in primary and secondary forest, forest edges, disturbed areas, and secondary vegetation near villages and along roadsides. It prefers a position in full sun or partial shade. It grows best at mean annual temperatures ranging from 10 °C to 35 °C. Succeeds in moist, fertile, but well-drained soil. This plant can flower all year round.

Morphology

• Pseudostems (shoots) - 3–6 m tall.
• Leaves - are green in color, hairless, lanceolate in shape, and measuring about 50-70 cm in length and 10-14 cm in width.
• Inflorescence - has a long peduncle measuring 1-1.5 m and rose well above the ground, densely congested with sterile bracts and fertile bracts; fertile bracts have a single bracteole and flower, inner ones are narrow and outer ones are broader and becoming transitional with involucral bracts.
• Flowers - are bright red with yellow margin in color, individual flowers emerge from between the colorful bracts and have a dark red labellum (lip petal); floral bracts are similar to involucral bracts but pinkish and smaller; bracteoles are tubular, 2 cm, deeply split on 1 side; the calyx is 3–4 cm, with 3- toothed apex; corolla is pink to red, sometimes white.
• Fruiting - are capsules with many black seeds, greenish or reddish in color measuring about 2-2.5 cm in diameter; fruiting heads measure 10 cm × 10 cm.

Cultivation

• It is propagated by seeds and the division of their rhizomes.

Chemical Constituents

Saponins, flavonoids (kaempferol and quercetin), polyphenol, essential oils, anthraquinone, tannins, chlorogenic acid, caffeoylquinic acids.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The plant considered aperient, resolvent, expectorant, deobstruent, carminative.
• Studies suggested antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antifungal, anti-melanoma properties.
• Used as a natural ingredient in cosmetic formulation, the inflorescence of torch ginger is also used for skin whitening, anti-aging, and lipstick preparation.
• In Malaysia, fruit is used to treat earache, and leaves are used for cleaning wounds.
• In Indonesia, used for the treatment of thyroid fever symptoms like mouth sores, diarrhea, coughs, and lack of appetite.
• In southeastern Asia, it is believed that a daily intake of raw inflorescence can reduce diabetes and hypertension.
• Mixed with other aromatic herbs, used by women for postpartum bathing to remove body odor.