Zedoary
Zedoaria; setwall, cetewale
- Known today as
- Curcuma zedoaria, of the ginger family, a bitter, camphor-scented root from India.
- Kind
- Plant
- Constituents
- curzerenone and furanodiene, curcumenol, curcumin, and 1 more
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Zedoary: what was it used for?
A warming root for wind, the stomach, and poison; one of the aromatics of the great cordials.
Zedoary: what does modern science say?
No clinical evidence for its old uses.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- curzerenone and furanodienesesquiterpenes of the oil
- curcumenol ChEMBL
- curcumin ChEMBLsmall amounts
- starch ChEMBLwhich made it a sickroom arrowroot
- Mechanism
- A turmeric relative: the oil is carminative and antimicrobial, and the sesquiterpenes are anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic to cancer cells in the laboratory, the basis of a Chinese injectable (zedoary oil) given with chemotherapy; the poison and cordial uses were the warmth and the scent.
- Toxic dose
- Safe as a spice; the oil contracts the uterus in animals.
- Standing
- In the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (e zhu) and Ayurveda; no European monograph.
- Lobo, R., et al. (2009). “Curcuma zedoaria Rosc. (white turmeric): a review of its chemical, pharmacological and ethnomedicinal properties.” Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 61. Verified against its record · doi:10.1211/jpp.61.01.0003
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Zedoary: what lore surrounds it?
In Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale the clerk Nicholas is “as sweete as is the roote / Of lycorys, or any cetewale”: zedoary.
In Their Own Words
Culpeper says zedoary (setwall) is hot and dry in the second degree, expels wind, resists poison, stops fluxes, stays vomiting, helps the colic and kills worms, half a dram being taken at a time.
“…they are both hot and dry in the second degree, expel wind, resist poison, stop fluxes, and the menses, stay vomiting, help the cholic, and kill worms; you may take half a dram at a time.”
Nicholas Culpeper, M.D., The Complete Herbal … to which are now first annexed, the English Physician Enlarged, and Key to Physic, Dispensatory, “Roots”: Zedoariae, Of Zedoary, or Setwall. A New Edition. London: Thomas Kelly, 17, Paternoster Row (no year printed); Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Sources
- Chaucer, G., The Miller’s Tale. Book, seen in reviews
- Pomet, P. (1694). Histoire générale des drogues (English, A Compleat History of Druggs, 1712). Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 book, seen in reviews. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026
- Chicago
“Zedoary.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 30, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/zedoary.
- MLA
“Zedoary.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 30 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/zedoary. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Zedoary. (2026, September 30). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/zedoary
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See Also
Sharing curcumin, starch
Drawing on the same sources: Chaucer, Pomet
The vernicle · Balsam of Peru · Woodlouse · Benzoin · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Abracadabra (one letter shorter each time, into a narrowing triangle) · Yew (Taxus baccata) · Aconite (of the buttercup family) · Yellow stainer · Adder’s-tongue fern (Ophioglossum vulgatum) · Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) · Aflatoxin mould · Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Historical description, not medical advice.