A small plant reaches 40 cm in height. Roots tuberous. Leaves dark green, narrow blade shaped, up to 20 leaves arranged in a whirl top of each leaf stem. Spathe varies in colour from pale purplish red to purplish pink.

Anthelmintic, analgesic and antineoplastic.

Ethnomedicinal uses of plants among the newar community of pharping village of kathmandu district, nepal

The rhizome is used for cough with copious sputum, greasy tongue coating, stuffy chest, for dizziness due to wind phlegm, paralysis, facial paralysis, and numbness in the hands or feet and carcinoma of the uterine cervix. It is soaked in vinegar and the concentrated solution is applied topically for boils, carbuncles, scrofula, and tuberculosis.

Contraindicated during pregnancy.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 96, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.