Phytochemical and Pharmacological Support for the Traditional Uses of Zingiberacea Species in Suriname - A Review of the Literature

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.