White ginger (Hedychium coronarium)

Gandasuli or white ginger (Hedychium coronarium) is a species of plant in the Zingiberaceae, a creeping rhizome with white flowers, a spice commonly found in humid places and near watercourses in lowlands up to 1900 meters, widely used for medicinal purposes.

H. coronarium has a trunk that is modified into a rhizome to propagate and branch below the soil surface. Roots and shoots grow from the fleshy segments of the rhizome. The shoot grows upwards with a pseudo-stem that comes from the leaf midrib.

White ginger has a height of 1-2 meters with a sitting leaf, lanceolate, 7-55 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, a large bone in the middle, pointed tip and green. Compound inflorescences with white crowns and a strong fragrance.

The flowers are extracted into essential oils as fragrant oil seeds. Rhizome has a bitter and warm taste when swallowed. Its chemical constituents include glucose, albumin, resin, cellulose and various organic acids.

Gandasuli is used for diaphoretics and stomakics, to cure various diseases such as headaches, colds, tonsils, indigestion, irregular menstruation, puerperal fever, rheumatism, aches and pains and bruises.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Genus: Hedychium
Species: Hedychium coronarium
Subspecies: Hedychium coronarium ssp. coronarium, Hedychium coronarium ssp. flavescens

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

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