Gisol
Kaempferia galanga · Aromatic ginger
- Names in the book
- Tagalog: Gusol, Dusol, Gisol
- Used for
- Joint pain, sprains and swelling
- Colours
- flowerwhite, purple
- Native range
- India to southern China and Indochina
- Family
- Zingiberaceae
- Printed as
- Kaempferia galanga Linn.
- Sources
- Healing Wonders of Herbs (1985), page 82 · Wikipedia
The plant today
Kaempferia galanga, commonly known as kencur, aromatic ginger, sand ginger, cutcherry, is a monocotyledonous plant in the ginger family, and one of four plants called galangal. It is found primarily in open areas in Indonesia, southern China, Taiwan, Cambodia, and India, but is also widely cultivated throughout Southeast Asia.
Excerpt from “Kaempferia galanga” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 78 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 18 provinces, most often Agusan del Sur (25), Zamboanga del Norte (7), Iloilo (4), Leyte (4), Cagayan (2), Guimaras (2), Occidental Mindoro (2), Oriental Mindoro (2), and 10 more.
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1985 book uses it for
A record of home remedies from 1985, with the book's amounts and doses reworded. It is not medical advice.
- MumpsChopped rhizome as a poultice on the swollen glands.Leave on for 30 minutes, three times a day.Page 33
Summarised from Herminia de Guzman-Ladion, Healing Wonders of Herbs (Manila: Philippine Publishing House, 1985), where this plant is shown as “Gisol” on page 82. The book is in copyright, so its wording and photographs are not reproduced. Amounts are the book's, restated.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Mitigative capacity of Kaempferia galanga L. and kaempferol on heterocyclic amines and advanced glycation end products in roasted beef patties and related mechanistic analysis by density functional theory
- Anti-Inflammatory Activity and Wound Healing Effect of Kaempferia galanga L. Rhizome on the Chemical-Induced Oral Mucosal Ulcer in Wistar Rats
- Protective effects of an alcoholic extract of Kaempferia galanga L. rhizome on ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in mice