The genus is named after the naturalist and traveller Engelbert Kaempfer, who lived in Japan and east Asia for the years 1689-1693 and was one of the first Europeans to write detailed descriptions of plants there.
Species
Over 100 names have been proposed in the genus. The following are accepted:[1]
Kaempferia rotunda L. - China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan), India, Nepal, Assam, Bangladesh, Indochina; naturalized in Java, Malaysia and Costa Rica
Three species of Kaempferia, i.e., K. galanga, K. rotunda, and K. angustifolia, are well studied for their essential oils along with other important phytochemical and medicinal properties. The micropropagation procedures of K. galanga and K. rotunda have been studied by many groups for more than two decades, but in vitro propagation of Kaempferia angustifolia was the first reported in 2018.[7]
^Techaprasan, J., Klinbunga, S., Ngamriabsakul, C. & Jenjittikul, T. (2010). Genetic variation of Kaempferia (Zingiberaceae) in Thailand based on chloroplast DNA (psbA-trnH and petA-psbJ) sequences. Genetics and Molecular Research 9: 1957-1973.
