About Curcuma zedoaria (Christm.) Roscoe
Curcuma zedoaria, commonly known as zedoary, grows in tropical and subtropical wet forest regions. This fragrant plant produces yellow flowers with red and green bracts. Its underground stem, a rhizome, is large, tuberous, and has many branches. The plant's leaf shoots are large, and can grow up to 1 meter (3 feet) tall. The zedoary rhizome is edible, with a white interior and a fragrance similar to mango. Its flavor is more comparable to ginger, though it has a distinctly bitter aftertaste. In Indonesia, zedoary is ground into a powder and used to make white curry pastes. In India, it is typically used fresh or for pickling, and also to flavor dals and chutneys. In Thai cuisine, it is eaten raw cut into thin strips for certain Thai salads, and sliced thin to serve alongside other herbs and vegetables with some types of nam phrik (Thai chilli pastes). In traditional medicine, this plant is used to treat inflammation, pain, a range of skin conditions including wounds, menstrual irregularities, and ulcers.
