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Curcuma angustifolia, is one of over 80 species belonging to the Curcuma genus, which is known to contain plants in the ginger and turmeric families. This species is native to the Indian subcontinent and is more commonly known as wild or East Indian Arrowroot or narrow-leaved turmeric in English, and is called "tikhur" in Hindi. While this species has been gradually increasing in popularity in the Western hemisphere for its medicinal potential, it is no stranger to the Eastern hemisphere where it plays an integral role in many Eastern cultures.

Description
Curcuma angustifolia is rhizomatous herb. It is a perennial and a flowering plant, with modest and small spiked inflorescences of three or four yellow, funnel-shaped flowers within tufts of pink terminal bracts (coma bracts). The bracts are boat-shaped and encase the entire perianth of the flower. As is common to the genus, the flowers of C. angustifolia have double anthers, a slender style, and a globular stigma. Flowers are usually seen at the beginning of the monsoon, or rainy season from July to August, before the leaves have the chance to fully develop, and they continue to flower even after the leaves have fully developed. The calyx of the flower is usually 1 centimeter long and very hairy, with 3 lobes that may appear to be triangular or obtuse. The corolla is white, and usually grows to be about 1.5 to 2 centimeters long with glabrous lobes that are also hairy. Seeds are a reddish-brown color.

Leaves are typically simple, green, glabrous, and lanceolate, with margins that are entire. They appear in an opposite arrangement and are deciduous. They display fine parallel venation off of a central midrib. The upper surface of the leaves are usually a darker shade of green than the lower surface. Leaves may grow to about 36-37 cm length and 8-10 cm in width. The leaves also smell and taste like tumeric

Of great significance to C. angustifolia is its strong rhizome, which can grow to be up to 1.5 meters in length. The rhizome of this plant is the primary source of its nutritive and medicinal properties. C. angustifolia also uses its rhizome to reproduce asexually via vegetative propagation.

The plant in its entirety typically grows to be from three to four feet in height.

Distribution
C. angustifolia is most commonly found growing wild in India, especially in the northeast and western coastal plains and hills. Such areas include the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. This species can also be found in Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Cultivation
C. angustifolia requires specific environmental conditions which may places in India provide, thus making it an ideal host country. The species requires temperatures at or above 34 degrees Fahrenheit. It prefers shady areas and grows best in moist soil that is sandy, pebbly, or loamy. As such, C. angustifolia is often found at the edges or in the clearings of forests.

Common Uses
While commonplace in Eastern culture and medicine, C. angustifolia has only recently earned the attention of the Western scientific community.

Food Uses
This species of plant is of great nutritional value, especially as a source of starch for Indian foods and medicines. The rhizomes of C. angustifolia are typically ground into flour, which can then be mixed together with milk to form a nutritious meal. This flour was a common commercial crop in the 1800s.

Most importantly, the West has begun to notice its seemingly endless potential as a source of nutrition and as a non-irritating diet for patients suffering from specific chronic ailments, recovering from fevers, or experiencing irritations of the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs, or the excretory system. C. angustifolia is also an ideal replacement of breast-milk or as nutrition for a short while after a child has been weaned.

It is found as a primary ingredient in cakes, jellies, biscuits, and puddings.

Medicinal Uses
The rhizomes of this plant can be used on the external surface of the body as well as internally to promote healing. It can be used to heal stomach ulcers, is beneficial is treatments of dysentery, diarrhea, and colitis, and is often employed as a tonic for patients suffering from tuberculosis. It is also used to sooth coughs and as such is used to treat bronchitis.

Essential oils from C. angustifolia have been extracted and are used as antifungal drugs. Compounds in the leaves of this plant have also been shown to have great potential as an anti-bacterial agents.

In addition, scientists have extracted the starches within the flour produced by the ground rhizomes of C. angustifolia and compared it to cornstarch. Its binding and disintegration properties make it a viable, and perhaps superior, substitute for cornstarch as an excipient in medicinal tablets.