Kaempferia parviflora, sold as Thai black ginger or krachaidum, is a plant in the ginger family whose root has long been used in Thai folk medicine. Its main compounds are polymethoxyflavones.
Also known as: Thai black ginger, black ginger, krachaidum, Thai ginseng, KaempMax.
Trials used 12 mg a day of purified polymethoxyflavones for 12 weeks (Yoshino 2021), 360 mg a day of extract for 12 weeks (Sripanidkulchai 2022) and 100 mg a day for 30 days (Stein 2018). These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
The NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database lists a Black Ginger Extract from Swanson whose label names Kaempferia parviflora as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling.
What studies show: a 2017 review found only 7 small human studies; it saw possible benefits for grip strength and sexual response but called the evidence inconclusive (Saokaew 2017). In a 12-week placebo-controlled trial in 80 overweight Japanese adults, its purified compounds lowered belly fat on CT scans compared with placebo; most authors worked for Maruzen Pharmaceuticals (Yoshino 2021). In 194 teenage male student athletes, 360 mg a day for 12 weeks improved grip and leg strength, VO2 max and sprint time versus placebo (Sripanidkulchai 2022). A 30-day pilot in 14 men with mild erection problems had no placebo group; its authors worked for Life Extension, a supplement company (Stein 2018).
Safety: the 2017 review found no adverse events reported, even at 1.35 g a day (Saokaew 2017). The sources here do not describe drug interactions.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for Kaempferia parviflora that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. Plant extracts are mixtures of many compounds, so no single figure would describe them.
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