# Zedoary (Curcuma zedoaria)

**Zedoaria*; setwall, cetewale*

**Known today as.** *Curcuma zedoaria*, of the ginger family, a bitter, camphor-scented root from India.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

A warming root for wind, the stomach, and poison; one of the aromatics of the great cordials.

## What does modern science say?

No clinical evidence for its old uses.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **curzerenone and furanodiene**: sesquiterpenes of the oil
- **curcumenol**: 
- **curcumin**: small amounts
- **starch**: which 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.

**Dose.** Safe as a spice; the oil contracts the uterus in animals.

**Standing.** In the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (e zhu) and Ayurveda; no European monograph.

## 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.

## Sources

- Chaucer, G., *The Miller’s Tale*.
- Pomet, P. (1694). *Histoire générale des drogues* (English, *A Compleat History of Druggs*, 1712).
- 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.

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*Zedoary.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-30. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/zedoary

Historical description, not medical advice.