This month, we’re all about the wonders of nature! So, while our main feature focuses on the wonderful plants and trees at The Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, here we are taking a closer look at all those tasty herbs and vegetables that help make Thai food so popular all over the world.

Chili

Thai chilies are varied in size and color but all are spicy and hot. They are often used in Thai dishes and for flavoring curries and spice menus. Chili is also a food appetizer.

Lemongrass

One of the most common herbs found in Thai dishes, lemongrass (Takrai) has a delightful aromatic odor. The lower part is usually used for flavoring as well as the upper section. You will always find it in the famous Tom Yam Kung dish. Lemongrass relieves asthma, as well as stomachaches and helps with the elimination of waste fluids.

Coriander

Thai food normally incorporates coriander to garish or season dishes. You will find it in curries, salads, stuffing, etc. Coriander reduces mucus, cures flatulence and acts as a gut-soothing medicine.

Finger root (lessor ginger)

A small yellow root, but with a wilder flavor than ginger. This one is always added to fish curries. It can help kill off bacteria in the intestines.

Shallots

Small red and purple onions used in almost every Thai dish. Shallots have a strong odor that can hurt your eyes. Shallots are what you really need when you get a cold. They help reduce a blocked nose and fever.

Onion

The light color bulbs are larger and milder than shallots, and often used in fried dishes, soup or salad. Onions can prevent colon cancer and relieve a cold.

Kaffir Lime Leaf

A leaf of the dark green fruit, which is often used as a seasoning in curries or for garnishing, Kaffir lime leaf is used in Thai dishes to improve the aroma.

Basil Leaf

Basil leaves give out a wonderful aromatic odor and release their flavor during cooking. Pad kraprao kai (hot and spicy fried chicken with basil leaves) is a very popular dish among Thais. This is a gut-calming medicine and relieves stomach-aches.

Mint Leaf

Very similar to mint in Western dishes, mint leaf (Saranae) is used as a vegetable and as a flavoring in Thai salads, drinks, sauces, stuffing and in meat roasts. Mint leaf diminishes inner heat and is used to eliminate smelly odor in some raw food or spicy salads.

Lime

Ma-nao in Thai, limes are used as a garnish for fish and meat dishes and mostly in spicy dishes to add a sour taste. Lime juice is used as an appetizer, and has anti-flu property and relieves colic.

Ginger

Ginger has aromatic rhizomes, used in different forms as a food, flavouring and spice. Ginger reduces flatulence, sharpens appetite and makes your body warmer.

Galanga

Aka Greater Galanga, it is similar to ginger and commonly used in Thai cooking as a flavouring. Galanga is used as carminative, stomachic, antirheumatic and antimicrobial agent.

Devil’s fig

Cooked as a vegetable in a dish or served fresh as a side dish, it will makes your blood flow well, cure bruised muscles, headache, gastric ulcer pain, swelling, inflammation, purulent inflammation and act as an expectorant.

Pepper

Fresh pepper is usually added to spicy dishes. It helps to cure chronic inflammation in blood vessels and asthma.

Piper Samentosum

Generally served with mieng, (a kind of finger food, wrapped tidbits in leaves) or cooked with some spicy coconut curries. Cha Ploo or Piper Samentosum has a strong hot taste that heightens your appetite.

Spiny coriander

Found in spicy items like Tom Yam, the spiny coriander gets rid of unwanted smells and acts as seasoning option.

Green Shallot

Green shallot is usually served with coriander as a food garnishing and topping. Green shallot will make you perspire and it’s good for your heart. Long term consuming green shallot has been proved to reduce fat in blood vessels.

Sweet Basil Leaf

Normally found in spicy coconut curries, sweet basil can cure colds, gastric disease, colic and gets rid of phlegm.