Alpinia nutans

Alpinia nutans
Alpinia nutans
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Subfamily: Alpinioideae
Tribe: Alpinieae
Genus: Alpinia
Species: A. nutans
Binomial name
Alpinia nutans
K.Schum.
Synonyms
  • Alpinia speciosa K.Schum.
  • Amomum compactum Roem. & Schult.
  • Catimbium nutans Juss.
  • Costus zerumbet Pers.
  • Languas speciosa Small
  • Renealmia nutans Andrews
  • Zerumbet speciosum H.Wendl

Alpinia nutans (Shellflower, Dwarf cardamom) is a Southeast Asian plant of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), which is often used as a medicinal plant.[citation needed]

Contents

Characteristics

Its flowers have a porcelain look, are shell-like and bloom prolifically on a 30-cm stalk. The flower's single fertile stamen has a massive anther. The globose white stigma of the pistil extends beyond the tip of the anther. The foliage of Alpinia nutans is evergreen in areas that do not have a hard freeze. It has a very distinctive cardamom fragrance when brushed or rubbed, but this is not the plant that produces the spice by that name.

Chemistry

The rhizome oil of Alpinia speciosa K. Schum. contains some fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms, which are less common in nature than fatty acids with even numbers of carbon atoms. The major one is pentadecanoic acid (C-15, 21.9%) and others are tricosylic acid (C-23, 5.7%), tridecylic acid (C-13, 1.9%), undecylic acid (C-11, 3.1%) and pelargonic acid (C-9, 0.1%). Among the fatty acids containing even number of carbon atoms, the main constituents are linolenic acid (C-18:3, 27.4%) and arachidic acid (C-20, 22.4%). The total saturated fatty acids constitute 65.7% and unsaturated 34.3%.[1]

References

  1. ^ Indrayan A.K., Agrawal N.K., Tyagi D.K. (2009). "Naturally occurring odd number fatty acids in the rhizome oil of Alpinia speciosa K. Schum". Journal of the Indian Chemical Society 86 (11): 1246–1248. 

External links


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