the common ginger Zingiber officinale Roscoe are well-known spices, condiments, and flavoring compounds. 3 And the leaves and flowers from C. longa, the grains of paradise Aframomum melegueta K. Schum., the white ginger Hedychium coronarium J. Koenig, and the east-Indian galangal Kaempferia galanga L. are consumed as vegetables and used as key ingredients of spicy savory dishes and/or herbal teas. 3Various species in the genera Alpinia Roxb., 1810, Curcuma L., Globba L., Hedychium J. Koenig, Kaempferia L., and Renealmia L.f. have visually attractive flowers and inflorescences and are cultivated as ornamentals. 3 The rhizomes from many species in the genera Alpinia Roxb., 1810, Curcuma L., Hedychium J. Koenig, and Zingiber Mill., 1754 contain essential oils for producing soaps, cosmetics, and perfumes. 3 In addition, a number of ginger species are medicinally used in various traditional systems throughout the world. Examples are A. melegueta, C. longa, and Z. officinale, preparations of which are used for treating many diseases ranging from infectious diseases and inflammatory conditions to hypertension and diabetes mellitus. 4 Parts from A. melegueta, C. longa, and R. alpinia are also used in religious ceremonies. 3 This paper first presents some general information about the Zingiberacea family, subsequently provides some background on Suriname, then extensively addresses the traditional uses of one representative species of the seven Zingiberacea genera in the ABSTRACT The Zingiberacea or ginger family is a family of flowering plants comprising roughly 1,600 species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes divided into about 50 genera. The Zingiberaceae are distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Many members are economically important as spices, ornamentals, cosmetics, traditional medicines, and/or ingredients of religious rituals. One of the most prominent characteristics of this plant family is the presence of essential oils in particularly the rhizomes but in some cases also the leaves and other parts of the plant. The essential oils are in general made up of a variety of, among others, terpenoid and phenolic compounds with important biological activities. The Republic of Suriname (South America) is well-known for its ethnic and cultural diversity as well as its extensive ethnopharmacological knowledge and unique plant biodiversity. This paper first presents some general information on the Zingiberacea family, subsequently provides some background about Suriname and the Zingiberacea species in the country, then extensively addresses the traditional uses of one representative of the seven genera in the country and provides the phytochemical and pharmacological support for these uses, and concludes with a critical appraisal of the medicinal values of these plants.

Plant-based preparations are commonly used in Suriname (South America) as adaptogens. In this study, fifteen alleged adaptogenic Surinamese plants have been assessed for their antioxidant activity (AA), total phenolic contents (TPC), and total flavonoid contents (TFC). The investigated plants were Anacardium occidentale, Spondiasdulcis, Annona muricata, Euterpe oleracea, Oenocarpus bacaba, Luffa acutangula, Punicagranatum, Malpighia emarginata, Syzygiumaqueum, Syzygiumcumini, Averrhoa carambola, and Renealmiaalpinia (fruit); Hibiscus sabdariffa (calyx); as well as Aloe vera and Cestrum latifolium (leaf). Aqueous extracts (1 - 3,000 μg/ mL) were prepared. AA was determined by the FRAP and the DPPH assay. TPC and TFC were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu’s and an AlCl3 colorimetric method, respectively, using gallic acid (GA) and rutin (R), respectively, as standards. Data are means ± SDs (n ≥ 3; P < 0.05). FRAP values and DPPH-scavenging activities correlated positively with each other and with TPC but not with TFC. The preparations from M. emarginata, A. carambola, A. occidentale, O. bacaba, C. latifolium, and H. sabdariffa displayed the highest FRAP values (54 ± 14 to 412 ± 30 µM Fe2+/100 μg), DPPH-scavenging activities (IC50 values of 33 ± 14 to 250 ± 50 μg/mL), and TPC (51 ± 4 to 280 ± 78 µM GAE/100 µg). TFC of all samples were ≤ 10 ± 3 RE/100 µg. The adaptogenic properties of these plants may (partially) be attributed to their high content of antioxidant phenolic compounds and may make them candidates of novel sources of health-promoting antioxidants.

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The Republic of Suriname (South America) is among the culturally, ethnically, and religiously most diverse countries in the world. Suriname’s population of about 600,000 consists of peoples from all continents including the Javanese who arrived in the country between 1890 and 1939 as indentured laborers to work on sugar cane plantations. After expiration of their five-year contract, some Javanese returned to Indonesia while others migrated to The Netherlands (the former colonial master of both Suriname and Indonesia), but many settled in Suriname. Today, the Javanese community of about 80,000 has been integrated well in Suriname but has preserved many of their traditions and rituals. This holds true for their language, religion, cultural expressions, and forms of entertainment. The Javanese have also maintained their traditional medical practices that are based on Jamu. Jamu has its origin in the Mataram Kingdom era in ancient Java, some 1300 years ago, and is mostly based on a variety of plant species. The many Jamu products are called jamus. The first part of this chapter presents a brief background of Suriname, addresses the history of the Surinamese Javanese as well as some of the religious and cultural expressions of this group, focuses on Jamu, and comprehensively deals with four medicinal plants that are commonly used by the Javanese. The second part of this chapter continues with an equally extensive narrative of six more such plants and concludes with a few remarks on the contribution of Javanese jamus to Suriname’s traditional medicinal pharmacopeia.

Angiogenesis is an important part of the wound healing process. In this study, the aqueous extracts from seven plant species that are used for wound care in the Republic of Suriname (South America), were evaluated at sub-toxic concentrations for their stimulatory effects on the closure of scratch-wounds in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), the formation of capillary-like structures by these cells, and the growth of sub-intestinal blood vessels in developing Tg (fli1a: EGFP) y1/+ zebrafish embryos. Sub-toxic extract concentrations were about one-third of IC50 values in HUVECs which were established using a sulforhodamine B assay after a 3-day exposure period. Data were expressed relatively to those found with untreated controls and considered statistically significantly different from each other when p values < 0.05 (ANOVA). When compared to untreated controls, the Oenocarpus bacaba stembark extract decreased HUVEC scratch-wound areas by about 30%; increased tube length, number of branching points, and number of loops formed by HUVECs by 50-70%, and increased total sub-intestinal blood vessel length in the zebrafish embryos by about 30%. The extracts from Morinda citrifolia (leaf), Luffa acutangula (fruit juice), Momordica charantia (leaf), Psidium guajava (leaf), Cecropia peltata (branch tops), and Spondias mombin (leaf) had no statistically significant effect on any of these variables. These observations suggest that the O. bacaba sample, unlike the other samples, possessed pro-angiogenic properties which may be involved in its beneficial effects in wound healing. Future studies should more elaborately evaluate these plants in order to definitely establish their therapeutic value in wound healing.

The Republic of Suriname (South America) is among the culturally, ethnically, and religiously most diverse countries in the world. Suriname’s population of about 600,000 consists of peoples from all continents including the Javanese who arrived in the country between 1890 and 1939 as indentured laborers to work on sugar cane plantations. After expiration of their five-year contract, some Javanese returned to Indonesia while others migrated to The Netherlands (the former colonial master of both Suriname and Indonesia), but many settled in Suriname. Today, the Javanese community of about 80,000 has been integrated well in Suriname but has preserved many of their traditions and rituals. This holds true for their language, religion, cultural expressions, and forms of entertainment. The Javanese have also maintained their traditional medical practices that are based on Jamu. Jamu has its origin in the Mataram Kingdom era in ancient Java, some 1300 years ago, and is mostly based on a variety of plant species. The many Jamu products are called jamus. The first part of this chapter presented a brief background of Suriname, addressed the history of the Surinamese Javanese as well as some of the religious and cultural expressions of this group, focused on Jamu, and comprehensively dealt with four medicinal plants that are commonly used by the Javanese. This second part of the chapter continues with an equally extensive narrative of six more such plants and concludes with a few remarks on the contribution of Javanese jamus to Suriname’s traditional medicinal pharmacopeia.

Fabaceae are associated with a high antioxidant activity (AA) and a high total phenolic (TPC), total flavonoid (TFC), and selenium content (SeC). In this study, the aqueous extracts from ten Fabaceae species that are medicinally used by the Aucan Tribal Peoples from Suriname (South America), were evaluated for AA using a DPPH and a FRAP assay, and for TPC, TFC, and SeC using Folin-Ciocalteu’s, an AlCl3 colorimetric, and an azure B-based method. Associations between pairs of these variables were determined by Pearson correlation coefficient. One-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test was used to evaluate the data for statistically significant differences (p < 0.05). The I. stipularis (bark), C. guyanensis (bark), A. jupunba (twigs), and M. urens (fruit) extracts had the highest DPPH IC50 values (36 - 70 μg/mL) and FRAP values (346 - 573 µM FeE/100 μg) and the highest TPC (25 - 41 GAEq/100 μg), TFC (21 - 39 REq/100 μg), and SeC (4 - 17 μg/g). The values for the T. indica (leaf), P. macroloba (bark), M. pigra (whole plant), S. quinquangulata (leaf), A. sensitiva (whole plant), and L. leucocephala (leaf) extracts were > 10-fold lower. AA, TPC, TFC, and SeC correlated well with each other (correlation coefficient ≥ 0.83, p ≤ 0.0030). Thus, AA, TPC, TFC, and SeC may represent important determinants of the health benefits of the former four samples but not of the others. Future studies should focus on the precise contribution of AA, TPC, TFC, and SeC to the therapeutic value of medicinal Fabaceae.

Many breakthrough drugs have been developed from plants with medicinal properties on the basis of ethnopharmacological information. In the search for structurally novel and mechanistically unique lead compounds, drug discovery and development progams are now also paying attention to the myriad of bioactive molecules provided by the animal biodiversity. A well-known example emerging from these efforts is the breakthrough angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril used for the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure. Captopril has been developed as an analogue of bradykinin in the venom of the Brazilian pit viper Bothrops jararaca (Viperidae) following the observation that the latter agent lowered blood pressure by vasodilation. In the mean time, dozens of clinically useful and potentially therapaeutically applicable compounds from animal origin have been identified. The skin gland secretions of amphibians have been refined during millions of years of evolution to highly efficient defensive chemicals. These compounds have remarkable pharmacological activities and may also represent a treasure chest of potentially novel drugs against pathophysiological conditions. This paper addresses the importance of bioactive compounds in the skin secretions of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians, and elaborates on the therapeutic potential of some of them as anti-alzheimer, cardiotonic, antidiabetic, anti-HIV, analgesic, antimicrobial, and antiparasitic compounds.Mans DRA (2020) Exploring the global animal biodiversity in the search for new drugs -Amphibians