GALANGAL  , formerly written " galingale," and sometimes " garingal," rhizome galangae (Arab . Kholinjan ;' Ger . Galgantwurzel; Fr .

Racine de Galanga), a drug, now obsolete, with an aromatic taste like that of mingled ginger and pepper . Lesser galangal root, radix galangae minoris, the ordinary galangal of commerce, is the dried rhizome of Alpinia officinarum, a plant of the natural order Zingiberaceae, growing in the Chinese island of Hainan, where it is cultivated, and probably also in the woods of the southern provinces of China . The plant is closely allied to Alpinia calcarata, the rhizome of which is sold in the bazaars of some parts of India as a sort of galangal . Its stems attain a length of about 4 ft., and its leaves are slender, lanceolate and light-green, and have a hot taste; the flowers are white with red veins, and in simple racemes; the roots form dense masses, sometimes more than a foot in diameter; and the rhizomes grow horizontally, and are 4 in. or less in thickness . Galangal seems to have been unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to have been first introduced into Europe by Arabian physicians . It is mentioned in the writings of Ibn Khurdadbah, an Arabian geographer who flourished in the latter half of the 9th century, and " gallengar " (gallingale or galangal) is one of the ingredients in an Anglo-Saxon receipt for a " wen salve " (see O . Cockayne, Saxon Leechdoms, vol. iii. p.13) . In the middle ages, as at present in Livonia, Esthonia and central Russia, galangal was in esteem in Europe both as a medicine and a spice, and in China it is still employed as a therapeutic agent . Its chief consumption is in Russia, where it is used as a cattle-medicine, and as a flavouring for liqueurs .