Kamias - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Hedychium coronarium

English: Ginger Lily

Tagalog: Kamias

 Small tree growing 5 to 12 meters high. Leaves are pinnate, 20-60 cm long, with hairy rachis and leaflets. Leaflets are opposite, 10 to 17 pairs, oblong, 5 to 10 cm in length. Flowers, about 1.5 cm long, and slightly fragrant. Fruit, green and edible, about 4 cm long, subcylindric with 5 obscure, broad, rounded, longitudinal lobes.

Distribution
Cultvated and semi-cultivated throughout the Philippines.

Parts utilized
Whole plant.

Properties
Astringent, stomachic, refrigerant, antiscorbutic.

Uses

• Skin diseases, especially with pruritus: Reduce the leaves to a paste and apply tolerably warm to areas of affected skin.
• Post-partum and rectal inflammation: Infusion of leaves.
• Mumps, acne, and localized rheumatic complaints: Paste of leaves applied to affected areas.
• Warm paste of leaves also used for pruritus.
• Cough and thrush: Infusion of flowers, 40 grams to a pint of boiling water, 4 glasses of tea daily.
• Fever: Fruit as a cooling drink.
• The fruit has been used for a variety of maladies: beriberi, cough, prevention of scurvy.
• Infusion of leaves also drank as a protective tonic after childbirth.

Others

• Fruit used to remove stains from clothing and for washing hands.
• A common seasoning for sweets and pickling.