Alpinia consists of the dried rhizome of Alpinia officinarum Hance. It is indigenous to Eastern and South -Western Asia and is cultivated there. The Indian Alpinia is somewhat larger than the Chinese, nearly smooth, longitudinally wrinkled and marked with fine annular scars of bud - scales. The fracture is hard and fibrous, cut surface grey-brown, porous and with a distinct stele and a thick cortex, exhibiting numerous red resin cells and yellowish collateral vascular bundles.
Secretory parenchyma contains a red-brown resin .
Narrow unlignified vessels with annular or scalariform thickening and large septate non-lignified fibres. Nausea and vomiting. Dose 1-2 g or by infusion or decoction. Dose 1-2 ml. Dose 2-4 ml.