Hedychium coronarium

Hedychium coronarium is native to the Eastern Himalayas of India (Sikkim and Tripura),Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Thailand, southern China,  eastern Taiwan in the East. It is also called as the white garland-lily or white ginger lily, butterfly lily and is a perennial flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. 1

The genus Hedychium itself (Zingiberaceae family) comprises 93 species that are distributed worldwide. The extract made of Hydechium ( flowers, root, leaves) has been used in traditional medicine in several counties to treat a wide spectrum of diseases.1,2

One research group studied the efficacy of the root extract  in the treatment of skin prone to damage chronologically or due to environment and pollution leading to its usage in cosmetic industry.6 Another research group has suggested that Hedychium coronarium extracts derived from the flowers of the plant have moisturizing, revitalizing and regenerating properties.Their studies also suggested that the Hedychium coronarium extracts has an anti-aging, an anti-inflammatory, anti-peroxidase activity, along with the ability to combat the photo induced erythema .1,4,6

The ability of the the extract to combat against the damage caused due to external stressors is attributed due to any of the mechanisms occurring at the cellular level-mitochondrial protection and/or activation, lysosomal protection and/or activation, inhibition of cellular IL-8 release, cellular production of β-endorphins, inhibition of irregular melanin release, protection and/or activation of the cellular transmembrane system by claudin .3,5

References:

  1. Hedychium coronarium – Useful Tropical Plants (theferns.info).
  2. Uncharted Source of Medicinal Products: The Case of the Hedychiu Medicines (Basel) 2020 Apr 28;7(5):23.
  3. Chemical constituents of the rhizomes of Hedychium coronarium and their inhibitory effect on the pro-inflammatory cytokines production LPS-stimulated in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells. Bioorg Med Chem Lett, 2011 Dec 15;21(24):7460-5.
  4. Anti-inflammation activity and chemical composition of flower essential oil from Hedychium coronarium. African Journal of Biotechnology. 2009; 8(20):5373- 5377.
  5. Hedychium Extract and compositions thereof and their use in the treatment of skin affected by harmful environmental influences. EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION, EP 3 342 465 A1, 04.07.2018.
  6. Composition containing Hedychium coronarium and teh use there of.WO 02/056859.