The Serumpun Codex · Leaves, ferns and palms
Daun Bungkang
An aromatic leaf that smells of bay and tastes faintly sour when dried.
The entry
- Name
- Daun Bungkang
- Other names
- Daun salam (Malay); Indonesian bay leaf
- Scientific name
- A Syzygium of the Iban kitchen, often equated with Syzygium polyanthum (daun salam). The Sarawak Department of Agriculture names it Eugenia cephalanthum.
- What it is
- An aromatic leaf that smells of bay and tastes faintly sour when dried.
- Knowledge from
- Mina Thrang, Kelabit, of the Bario highlands, who learned to read wild plants from her mother and grandmother.
- Shared with Serumpun by
- Mina Thrang
- How it is used
- Young leaves flavour meat and fish cooked in bamboo, and are cooked as a vegetable.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- Wraps the hearth-roasted tiger prawn in Course V, Sea, at Osaka. A thirty-minute cure for the beef at the Kuching Finale, the venison at Osaka and the lamb at Mulu. Also a glace with Gula Apong.
- Conservation status
- Syzygium polyanthum is not assessed on the IUCN Red List, and neither it nor Eugenia cephalanthum is listed under the Sarawak Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998.
- Codex Alimentarius
- No Codex standard
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: season and place.
Sources
- The Living Pantry, James Won
- Sarawak Department of Agriculture
- GBIF, IUCN Red List category lookup for Syzygium polyanthum (Not Evaluated; no record in the IUCN Red List checklist, July 2026 edition)
- Forest Department Sarawak, Protected Plants of Sarawak (Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998, Part II)
- Sarawak Government, Wild Life Protection Ordinance 1998 (Cap. 26), Second Schedule, LawNet 2024
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 1 November 2026. This ingredient is also told in James Won's words in The Living Pantry.
Anyone may cook with this knowledge, commercially too, provided the community it comes from is credited by name. To correct or withdraw this entry, write to the Custodian at connect@chefjameswon.com.
How to cite this entry
Serumpun Sarawak (2026) ‘Daun Bungkang’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/daun-bungkang/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.