The Serumpun Codex · Aromatics and spices
Tepus
A wild ginger whose fruits and young shoots are eaten.
The entry
- Name
- Tepus
- Other names
- Tubu tana, tubu nanung (Kelabit); wild ginger
- Scientific name
- Etlingera, chiefly E. coccinea. The Sarawak Department of Agriculture's E. punicea reflects an older grouping.
- What it is
- A wild ginger whose fruits and young shoots are eaten.
- Knowledge from
- The Malays, Bidayuh, Iban and Kelabit.
- How it is used
- Fruits and young shoots eaten, or cooked with chicken, as in pansuh.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- In Course III, Mountain, at Osaka.
- Season and place
- Grown in farm plots by the Iban of Lubok Antu, Sri Aman. No season is recorded.
- Conservation status
- Etlingera coccinea and E. punicea are both Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2019 assessments); neither 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: who shared it with Serumpun.
Sources
- Sarawak Department of Agriculture
- Nazeer et al., 2025
- Awang-Kanak and Abu Bakar, Traditional vegetable salad (ulam) of Borneo as source of functional food, Food Research, 2019
- Poulsen, A.D., Olander, S.B. and Docot, R.V.A., Etlingera coccinea, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2019 (category read via GBIF)
- Saw, L.G., Etlingera punicea, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2019 (category read via GBIF)
- GBIF, IUCN Red List record for Etlingera coccinea
- 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.
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) ‘Tepus’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/tepus/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.