Etlingera elatior
Etlingera elatior is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the family Zingiberaceae, native to the Malay Peninsular, the islands of Indonesia and New Guinea of the Malesia bioregion.
The showy pink flowers are used in decorative arrangements and are an important ingredient in food across Southeast Asia.
Names
E. elatior is also known as "torch ginger", "ginger flower", "red ginger lily", "torchflower", "torch lily", "wild ginger", "Indonesian tall ginger" and "porcelain rose".Description
The species grows as a pseudostem from a rhizome; it takes about 18–22 days for the first leaf to grow from the rhizome. The leafy shoot lasts for about 70 days and may reach a height of 3–6 metres. Its leaves are leathery and grow around long and broad with a central groove. The fibers of Etlingera elatior are strong.Flower
The capitate inflorescence appears from the shoot after 30 days, reaching a height of 2.5 m it swells gradually and turns pink before blooming after more than 50 days. The inflorescence is made of 20–25 layers of floral bracts and 3-4 layers of involuceral bracts at full bloom; it may have 90-120 true flowers inside. The capitulum can reach a diameter of 25 cm.Chemistry
From the leaves of E. elatior, three caffeoylquinic acids, including chlorogenic acid, as well as three flavonoids quercitrin, isoquercitrin and catechin, have been isolated. Content of CGA was significantly higher than flowers of Lonicera japonica, the commercial source.A protocol for producing a standardized herbal extract of CGA from leaves of E. elatior has been developed, compared to commercial CGA extracts from honeysuckle flowers.
Similar species
Alpinia galanga Curcuma longa Etlingera fulgensEtlingera maingayiUses
The flower buds are edible. In North Sumatra, the flower buds are used in a stewed fish dish called Arsik ikan mas. In Bali, people use the white part of the bottom part of the trunk for cooking chilli sauce called "Sambal Bongkot", and use the flower buds to make chilli sauce called "Sambal Kecicang".In Thailand, it is eaten in a kind of Thai salad preparation. In Malaysia, the flower is an essential ingredient in cooking the fish broth for a kind of spicy sour noodle soup called "asam laksa", in the preparation of a kind of salad called kerabu and many other Malay dishes. The fruit is also used in Indonesian cooking.
In Karo language|Karo], it is known as asam cekala, and the flower buds, but more importantly the ripe seed pods, which are packed with small black seeds, are an essential ingredient of the Karo version of sayur asam, and are particularly suited to cooking fresh fish. In Sundanese, it is known as Honje.