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.

This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. Author DRAM designed and supervised the study, wrote the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Authors JRT and RB supervised the laboratory studies and performed the statistical analyses. Authors JAH and KO were in charge of the plant collections and extractions. Authors MD, PF and JP carried out and interpreted the cell culture studies. Authors IM and RCS carried out and interpreted the zebra fish studies.

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 consumption of diets rich in antioxidants may minimize the chances of developing debilitating diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetic, inflammatory, neoplastic, and cognitive disorders. The Fabaceae or pea family is the third most species-rich plant family on Earth and includes more than 19,000 species in over 700 genera. Many species of Fabaceae are ingredients of staple diets and medicinal substances. This may be attributable to the presumably high content of antioxidants in these plants, particularly phenolic compounds. The Republic of Suriname (South America) harbors over 400 species of Fabaceae in more than 100 genera and has a rich ethnopharmacological tradition that also involves a number of Fabaceae species. In this chapter, we evaluated the literature to determine whether the traditional use of eight of the medicinally most commonly employed Surinamese species of Fabaceae may be associated with their phenolic content and antioxidant activity. Our results suggest that this may hold true for Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Cajanus cajan, Clitoria ternatea, Desmodium adscendens, Lablab purpureus, and Tamarindus indica but not for Copaifera guyanensis and Dipteryx odorata, the bioactivities of which mainly seem to be determined by terpenoids and coumarins, respectively, without an apparent involvement of antioxidant effects.