Nature portrayed in images in Dutch Brazil: Tracing the sources of the plant woodcuts in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648).

By the mid-seventeenth century, images of natural elements that originated in Dutch Brazil circulated in Europe. These were often included in art collections (the Libri Picturati) and natural history treatises (the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae and the India Utriesque re Naturale et Medica, 1658). The plant woodcut images in these books constituted (icono) type specimens and played a significant role in disseminating scientific botanical knowledge. We present a systematic analysis of their origins by cross-referencing the visual and textual sources related to Dutch Brazil. To do so, we used our previous botanical identifications of the portrayed plants, published sources, and digital archival material. The plant woodcuts accounted for 529 images, which corresponded to 426 taxa. We created a PDF booklet to visualize the (dis-) similarities of the woodcuts with the Libri Picturati and other visual sources. Substantial differences in the visual-making methodology exist between the two treatises (1648, 1658). In the first book, most of the images were available from Dutch Brazil and carved into the woodcuts, while most of these woodcuts were reused in the second one. The Indigenous Tupi-based plant names accompanying the images were crucial when arranging the sources, and portraying as much botanical information as possible was commonly the goal. Freshly picked, living plants, dried branches, fruits, and seeds were used to represent the megadiverse Brazilian flora, even when these belonged to species originating from other regions. Despite not being recognized for their contribution, Indigenous Brazilians and enslaved Africans were essential in the visual knowledge-making processes that later resulted in these natural history collections. As several sources remain lost and many histories yet untold, further archival studies and collaborative projects are pertinent to reveal the missing pieces of this conundrum.

More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia.

Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Modeled distribution and abundance of large-scale archaeological sites across Amazonia suggest that between 10,272 and 23,648 sites remain to be discovered and that most will be found in the southwest. We also identified 53 domesticated tree species significantly associated with earthwork occurrence probability, likely suggesting past management practices. Closed-canopy forests across Amazonia are likely to contain thousands of undiscovered archaeological sites around which pre-Columbian societies actively modified forests, a discovery that opens opportunities for better understanding the magnitude of ancient human influence on Amazonia and its current state.

Looking into the flora of Dutch Brazil: botanical identifications of seventeenth century plant illustrations in the Libri Picturati.

The Libri Picturati includes a collection of plant illustrations from seventeenth century Dutch Brazil that is kept in the Jagiellonian library in Krakow since World War II. While many studies focused on the artistic details and history of these images, we identified the flora depicted. We used contemporary textual sources (e.g., Historia Naturalis Brasiliae), monographs and taxonomist' assessments. We checked origin, life form, domestication and conservation status and the plant parts that are represented. We identified 198 taxa, consisting mostly of wild, native rainforest trees and 35 introduced species. Fertile branches are the most represented, although some loose dry fruits and sterile material were also painted, which sheds light into the collection methods by naturalists in Dutch Brazil. Several species are no longer abundant or have become invasive due to anthropogenic influences since colonialism. Through this botanical iconography, we traced the first records of the sunflower and the Ethiopian pepper in Brazil, as well as the dispersion and assimilation of the flora encountered in the colony by Indigenous, African and European peoples. We emphasized the relevance of combining visual and textual sources when studying natural history collections and we highlighted how digitalization makes these artistic and scientific collections more accessible.

The legacy of traditional rice cultivation by descendants of Indian contract laborers in Suriname.

BACKGROUND: Some 35,000 indentured laborers from India were recruited to work on plantations in Suriname between 1868 and 1916. It is likely that most were familiar with farming before they were shipped to this former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. Around 1900, those who did not return received a piece of land where most of them started growing rice as a staple crop. Agronomists characterized their traditional landraces as inferior and infested with weedy rice and started to 'purify' these landraces. No research has been done on whether these ancient rice varieties still exist. We aimed to document the rice varieties (both landraces and more modern cultivars) grown currently or in the recent past by (descendants of) Hindustani smallholders in Suriname, their origin, morphological and agronomic characters, local uses and cultural and spiritual relevance. Given the rapid decline in small-scale rice cultivation in the past 40 years, we wanted to know why people continued or abandoned rice farming and what aspects of traditional practices still survived. METHODS: We interviewed 26 (former) small-scale Hindustani farmers and asked about the varieties they cultivated and traditional agricultural practices. We collected seed samples, local names and associated information, and compared these to information from agricultural reports from the colonial period. We also interviewed 11 Maroons, one Javanese farmer, and three persons of mixed ethnicity, who were somehow involved in the cultivation of East Indian rice varieties. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Hindustani smallholders in Suriname largely lost their traditional rice landraces. Most of the interviewed farmers grew modern cultivars, developed after 2000. Some cultivars from the 1950s were still planted for fodder, but these were heavily mixed with weedy rice and other weeds. Maroon farmers in the interior, however, still actively cultivated varieties with names like 'coolie rice', which probably descend from landraces introduced by the Indian contract laborers, although this needs to be confirmed by molecular research. Although traditional cultivation practices seem to have been lost, smallholders still retain pleasant memories of the manual planting, harvesting, and processing of rice, as well as the gender-based practices and beliefs associated with the cultivation of the crop. The oral history of former rice farmers and traditional rice varieties (possibly obtained from Maroon fields) could play a role in museum settings as living vehicles for memories of the descendants of Asian contract labourers in Suriname and Guyana.

What's in a name? Revisiting medicinal and religious plants at an Amazonian market.

BACKGROUND: In spite of an increasing number of ethnobotanical market surveys in the past decades, few studies compare changes in plant species trade over time. The open-air market Ver-o-Peso (VOP) in Belém, located near the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Pará, Brazil, is known for its wide variety of medicinal plants. A survey of VOP was published in 1984, but it remains unknown to what extent its botanical composition changed over 34 years. Furthermore, in northern Brazil, little attention has been given to the origins of the vernacular names of these plants. Our aim is to give an up-to-date overview of the VOP medicinal plant market, concentrating on changes in species composition and vernacular names over time. METHODS: We collected medicinal plants and vernacular names at VOP in August 2018. We identified most plants at the Museo Paraense Emilio Goeldi Herbarium, where we also deposited vouchers and specimen labels. We compared our species composition data to the 1984 inventory by Van den Berg. Furthermore, we investigated the etymologies of the vernacular plant names. RESULTS: We recorded 155 plant specimens and 165 corresponding vernacular names, and collected 146 specimens from the medicinal and ritual stalls of VOP reporting 86 species formerly not recorded at this market. Vernacular names had mostly Portuguese roots, followed by Tupi and African ones. We found 30 species also documented in 1984, and vernacular names that overlapped between both surveys were used for the same botanical species or genus, indicating that vernacular names have changed little in the past decades. Lastly, we found 26 more introduced species sold at VOP compared to 1984. CONCLUSIONS: Forest degradation and deforestation, prevalence of diseases, and methodological factors may play a role in the differences we found in our survey compared to 1984. Of the plants that did overlap between the two surveys, vernacular names of these plants were hardly different. Lastly, the lingual origins of the vernacular names in our survey and the origins of the plant species reflect the history of the intricate syncretism of medicinal plant practices of indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and European origins in Belém.

Geopolitics of bitterness: Deciphering the history and cultural biogeography of Quassia amara L.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Quassia amara L. recently came into the spotlight in French Guiana, when it became the object of a biopiracy claim. Due to the numerous use records throughout the Guiana shield, at least since the 18th century, a thorough investigation of its origin seemed relevant and timely. In the light of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya protocol, questions about the origin of local knowledge are important to debate. AIM OF THE STUDY: Defining cultural biogeography as the dynamics through space and time of biocultural complexes, we used this theoretical framework to shed light on the complex biogeographical and cultural history of Q. amara. We explored in particular the possible transfer of medicinal knowledge on an Old World species to a botanically related New World one by enslaved Africans in Suriname. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Historical and contemporary literature research was performed by means of digitized manuscripts, archives and databases from the 17th to the 21st century. We retrieved data from digitized herbarium vouchers in herbaria of the Botanic Garden Meise (Belgium); Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the Netherlands); Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum (USA); Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (UK); the IRD Herbarium, French Guiana and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (France). Vernacular names were retrieved from literature and herbarium specimens and compared to verify the origin of Quassia amara and its uses. RESULTS: Our exploration of digitized herbarium vouchers resulted in 1287 records, of which 661 were Q. amara and 636 were Q. africana. We observed that the destiny of this species, over at least 300 years, interweaves politics, economy, culture and medicine in a very complex way. Quassia amara's uses are difficult to attribute to specific cultural groups: the species is widely distributed in Central and South America, where it is popular among many ethnic groups. The species spread from Central to South America during the early 18th century due to political and economic reasons. This migration possibly resulted from simultaneous migration by religious orders (Jesuits) from Central America to northern South America and by Carib-speaking Amerindians (from northern South America to Suriname). Subsequently, through colonial trade networks, Q. amara spread to the rest of the world. The absence of African-derived local names in the Guiana shield suggests that Q. africana was not sufficiently familiar to enslaved Africans in the region that they preserved its names and transferred the associated medicinal knowledge to Q. amara. CONCLUSIONS: Cultural biogeography has proven an interesting concept to reconstruct the dynamics of biocultural interactions through space and time, while herbarium databases have shown to be useful to decipher evolution of local plant knowledge. Tracing the origin of a knowledge is nevertheless a complex adventure that deserves time and interdisciplinary studies.

Marcgrave and Piso's plants for sale: The presence of plant species and names from the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) in contemporary Brazilian markets.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Parallelisms between current and historical medicinal practices as described in the seventeenth century treatise Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (HNB) provide us with an overview of traditional plant knowledge transformations. Local markets reflect the actual plant use in urban and rural surroundings, allowing us to trace cross-century similarities of ethnobotanical knowledge. AIMS OF THE STUDY: We aim to verify in how far the HNB, created in seventeenth-century northeastern Brazil, correlates with contemporary plant use in the country by comparing the plant knowledge therein with recent plant market surveys at national level. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a literature review on ethnobotanical market surveys in Brazil. We used the retrieved data on plant composition and vernacular names, together with our own fieldwork from the Ver-o-Peso market in Belém, to compare each market repertoire with the useful species in the HNB. We analyzed similarities among markets and the HNB with a Detrended Correspondence Analysis and by creating Venn diagrams. We analyzed the methods of the different markets to check whether they influenced our results. RESULTS: Out of the 24 markets reviewed, the greatest similarities with the HNB are seen in northern Brazilian markets, both in plant composition and vernacular names, followed by the northeast. The least overlap is found with markets in the central west and Rio de Janeiro. Most of the shared vernacular names with the HNB belonged to languages of the Tupi linguistic family. CONCLUSION: The similarity patterns in floristic composition among Brazilian markets and the HNB indicate the current wider distribution and trade of the species that Marcgrave and Piso described in 1648 in the northeast. Migration of indigenous groups, environmental changes, globalized and homogenous plant trade, and different market survey methods played a role in these results. The HNB is a reference point in time that captures a moment of colonial cultural transformations.

Sustainability issues of commercial non-timber forest product extraction in West Suriname.

BACKGROUND: Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have been traded for millennia by indigenous communities. Current increased demands driven by globalisation, however, put more pressure on local harvesters and their surrounding ecosystems. The safeguarding of indigenous access rights to harvesting grounds is needed, either through communal land titles or collaborative management agreements, both to secure prior indigenous rights and to minimise further negative ecological impacts. METHODS: This study was carried out in two indigenous communities in West Suriname located along the Corentyne River. We assessed the three economically most important NTFPs for each community. We determined the land tenure status of harvesting grounds and negative impacts on target species and/or ecosystem. Ethnobotanical data were collected (n = 53), and semi-structured interviews were held with hunters and gatherers (n = 13). Local and national maps were acquired, and their data merged. RESULTS: Results showed that the communities have no tenure security over their most important harvesting sites. These collection sites are State owned and some under (active) logging concession. All of the traded wild animal populations had decreased because of increased local and non-local commercial interest, especially the stingray Potamotrygon boesemani (first described in 2008), which was traded for US$250 per live specimen. The stingray population had become imperilled within months as local and (inter-) national regulations for this species are non-existent. CONCLUSIONS: We stress the urgent need for collaborative management agreements over the harvesting sites between the government of Suriname and the indigenous communities to prevent further non-local developments and harvesting to disturb the local economy. An immediate moratorium on the export of P. boesemani is necessary to prevent the extinction of this endemic stingray.

Ethnobotany of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán: climate change and conservation strategies in the Colombian Andes.

BACKGROUND: The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán in the Colombian Andes is protected as a National Natural Park since 1977 because of its fragile páramo ecosystems, extraordinary biodiversity, high plant endemism, and function as water reservoir. The vegetation on this mountain is threatened by expanding agriculture, deforestation, tourism, and climate change. We present an ethnobotanical inventory among local farmer communities and discuss the effects of vegetation change on the availability of useful plants. METHODS: We used 76 semi-structured, 4 in-depth interviews, and 247 botanical collections to record the ethnoflora of the farmers and surveyed from the high Andean forest to the super-páramo, including native and introduced species. We organized 3 participative workshops with local children, high school students, and campesinos' women to share the data we acquired in the field and empower local plant conservation awareness. RESULTS: We encountered 174 useful plants, most of them native to the area (68%) and almost one third introduced (32%). The Compositae was the most species-rich family, followed by Lamiaceae, Poaceae, and Rosaceae. The majority of plant species were used as medicine, followed by food, firewood, and domestic tools. Local farmers reported declining numbers of páramo species, which were now only found at higher altitudes than before. Although our informants were worried about the preservation of their natural resources and noticed the effects of climate change, for several commercial species, unsustainable land use and overharvesting seemed to be the direct cause of declining medicinal plant resources rather than climate change. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend conservation plans that include vegetation monitoring, people's perceptions on climate change, and participative actions with the communities of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy-Güicán.

Herbal bathing: an analysis of variation in plant use among Saramaccan and Aucan Maroons in Suriname.

BACKGROUND: Herbal baths play an important role in the traditional health care of Maroons living in the interior of Suriname. However, little is known on the differences in plant ingredients used among and within the Maroon groups. We compared plant use in herbal baths documented for Saramaccan and Aucan Maroons, to see whether similarity in species was related to bath type, ethnic group, or geographical location. We hypothesized that because of their dissimilar cultural background, they used different species for the same type of bath. We assumed, however, that plants used in genital baths were more similar, as certain plant ingredients (e.g., essential oils), are preferred in these baths. METHODS: We compiled a database from published and unpublished sources on herbal bath ingredients and constructed a presence/absence matrix per bath type and study site. To assess similarity in plant use among and within Saramaccan and Aucan communities, we performed three Detrended Correspondence Analyses on species level and the Jaccard Similarity Index to quantify similarity in bath ingredients. RESULTS: We recorded 349 plants used in six commonly used bath types: baby strength, adult strength, skin diseases, respiratory ailments, genital steam baths, and spiritual issues. Our results showed a large variation in plant ingredients among the Saramaccan and Aucans and little similarity between Saramaccans and Aucans, even for the same type of baths. Plant ingredients for baby baths and genital baths shared more species than the others. Even within the Saramaccan community, plant ingredients were stronger associated with location than with bath type. CONCLUSIONS: Plant use in bathing was strongly influenced by study site and then by ethnicity, but less by bath type. As Maroons escaped from different plantations and developed their ethnomedicinal practices in isolation, there has been little exchange in ethnobotanical knowledge after the seventeenth century between ethnic groups. Care should be taken in extrapolating plant use data collected from one location to a whole ethnic community. Maroon plant use deserves more scientific attention, especially now as there are indications that traditional knowledge is disappearing.

Indigenous Children's Knowledge About Non-timber Forest Products in Suriname.

Childhood and adolescence are important life stages for the acquisition of knowledge about non-timber forest products (NTFPs). We show at which stage in life traditional plant knowledge is learned and analyze whether cross-cultural ethnobotanical knowledge transmission takes place. We evaluate whether the degree of forest dependency influences ethnobotanical knowledge by comparing two indigenous communities in Suriname. Traditional knowledge was documented and vouchers collected during forest walks with adult informants. Questionnaires were completed by 74 schoolchildren (age 4 to 14) to capture their knowledge of names and uses of nine important NTFPs. We tested for knowledge differences by ethnicity and NTFP categories. Local names for NTFPs were analyzed to determine cross-cultural transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge. Children from the forest-dependent Trio community (n = 23) possessed similar knowledge of NTFPs as their more urbanized peers from Apoera (n = 51). NTFP uses were acquired at an earlier age than plant names. Food and commercial NTFP uses were better known than medicinal plant uses. Cross-cultural transfer of knowledge occurred between the two communities. NTFP knowledge of children appeared to be influenced more by the time they spent within the forest, either walking to school or walking to agricultural plots, than by the level of forest dependency or acculturation.

De jeugd en pubertijd zijn belangrijke levensfasen voor het verwerven van kennis over Niet-Hout Bosproducten (NTFP's) bij bewoners van het Amazonegebied. Dit onderzoek had als doel te achterhalen in welke levensjaren traditionele plantenkennis wordt toegeëigend en of er ethnobotanische kennis wordt uitgewisseld tussen twee Inheemse gemeenschappen in Suriname. Verwacht werd dat de afhankelijkheid van het bos de hoeveelheid ethnobotanische kennis beïnvloedt. Tijdens boswandelingen met volwassen informanten is traditionele kennis over NTFPs gedocumenteerd en zijn er botanische specimens verzameld. Door 74 schoolgaande kinderen (4 tot 14 jaar) zijn vragenlijsten ingevuld om hun kennis te achterhalen over lokale namen en toepassingen van negen belangrijke NTFP soorten. Het verschil in kennis werd vergeleken tussen twee ethnische groepen en NTFP-categorieën (eetbaar en medicinaal). Lokale namen voor NTFP's werden geanalyseerd om overdracht van ethnobotanische kennis tussen de gemeenschappen te bepalen. Tegen de verwachting in hadden kinderen uit de bosafhankelijke Trio-gemeenschap (n = 23) dezelfde kennis over NTFP's als de meer verstedelijkte kinderen uit Apoera (n = 51). NTFP-toepassingen waren op jongere leeftijd beter bekend dan plantennamen. Eetbare en commerciële bosproducten waren beter bekend dan medicinale planten. Overdracht van kennis vond plaats tussen de twee gemeenschappen. De NTFP-kennis van kinderen bleek meer beïnvloed te worden door de tijd die ze in het bos besteden, dan door het niveau van bosafhankelijkheid of acculturatie.

Tracing ancestor rice of Suriname Maroons back to its African origin.

African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and African cultivation practices are said to have influenced emerging colonial plantation economies in the Americas1,2. However, the level of impact of African rice practices is difficult to establish because of limited written or botanical records2,3. Recent findings of O. glaberrima in rice fields of Suriname Maroons bear evidence of the high level of knowledge about rice among African slaves and their descendants, who consecrate it in ancestor rituals4,5. Here we establish the strong similarity, and hence likely origin, of the first extant New World landrace of O. glaberrima to landraces from the Upper Guinean forests in West Africa. We collected African rice from a Maroon market in Paramaribo, Suriname, propagated it, sequenced its genome6 and compared it with genomes of 109 accessions representing O. glaberrima diversity across West Africa. By analysing 1,649,769 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in clustering analyses, the Suriname sample appears sister to an Ivory Coast landrace, and shows no evidence of introgression from Asian rice. Whereas the Dutch took most slaves from Ghana, Benin and Central Africa7, the diaries of slave ship captains record the purchase of food for provisions when sailing along the West African Coast8, offering one possible explanation for the patterns of genetic similarity. This study demonstrates the utility of genomics in understanding the largely unwritten histories of crop cultures of diaspora communities.

Patterns in medicinal plant knowledge and use in a Maroon village in Suriname.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Traditional medicine plays an important role in the primary health care practices of Maroons living in the interior of Suriname. Large numbers of medicinal plants are employed to maintain general health and cure illnesses. Little is known, however, on how knowledge of herbal medicine varies within the community and whether plant use remains important when modern health care becomes available. AIM OF THE STUDY: To document the diversity in medicinal plant knowledge and use in a remote Saramaccan Maroon community and to assess the importance of medicinal plants vis a vis locally available modern healthcare. We hypothesized that ailments which could be treated by the village health center would be less salient in herbal medicine reports. METHODS: During three months fieldwork in the Saramaccan village of Pikin Slee, ethnobotanical data were collected by means of participant observations, voucher collections and 27 semi-structured interviews and informal discussions with 20 respondents. To test whether knowledge of medicinal plant species was kept within families, we performed a Detrended Correspondence Analysis. RESULTS: In total, 110 medicinal plant species were recorded, with 302 health use reports and 72 uses, mostly related to general health concerns (42%), diseases of the digestive system (10%), musculoskeletal system and fever (each 7%). Bathing was the most important mode of application. Most health use reports related to cure (58%) and health promotion (39%), while disease prevention played a minor role. Traditional medicine not only treated cultural illnesses, but also health concerns that could be treated with locally available modern medicines. Knowledge of medicinal plant species is not strictly kept within families, but also shared with friends. Certain recipes and applications, however, may be specific family knowledge. CONCLUSION: Medicinal plants play a very important role in the daily lives of the Pikin Slee villagers. Plant use reflects actual health concerns, but as modern medicines are available for most of these concerns, the use of herbal medicines seems to be a deep rooted cultural preference, especially when concerned with cultural illnesses and health promotion. Locally provided healthcare could be enriched if traditional knowledge, illness concepts, and medicinal plant uses could fit into a larger, community-oriented framework.

The use of Amerindian charm plants in the Guianas.

BACKGROUND: Magical charm plants to ensure good luck in hunting, fishing, agriculture, love and warfare are known among many Amerindians groups in the Guianas. Documented by anthropologists as social and political markers and exchangeable commodities, these charms have received little attention by ethnobotanists, as they are surrounded by secrecy and are difficult to identify. We compared the use of charm species among indigenous groups in the Guianas to see whether similarity in charm species was related to geographical or cultural proximity. We hypothesized that cultivated plants were more widely shared than wild ones and that charms with underground bulbs were more widely used than those without such organs, as vegetatively propagated plants would facilitate transfer of charm knowledge. METHODS: We compiled a list of charm plants from recent fieldwork and supplemented these with information from herbarium collections, historic and recent literature among 11 ethnic groups in the Guianas. To assess similarity in plant use among these groups, we performed a Detrended Component Analysis (DCA) on species level. To see whether cultivated plants or vegetatively propagated species were more widely shared among ethnic groups than wild species or plants without rhizomes, tubers or stem-rooting capacity, we used an independent sample t-test. RESULTS: We recorded 366 charms, representing 145 species. The majority were hunting charms, wild plants, propagated via underground bulbs and grown in villages. Our data suggest that similarity in charm species is associated with geographical proximity and not cultural relatedness. The most widely shared species, used by all Amerindian groups, is Caladium bicolor. The tubers of this plant facilitate easy transport and its natural variability allows for associations with a diversity of game animals. Human selection on shape, size and color of plants through clonal reproduction has ensured the continuity of morphological traits and their correlation with animal features. CONCLUSIONS: Charm plants serve as vehicles for traditional knowledge on animal behavior, tribal warfare and other aspects of oral history and should therefore deserve more scientific and societal attention, especially because there are indications that traditional knowledge on charms is disappearing.

Local plant names reveal that enslaved Africans recognized substantial parts of the New World flora.

How did the forced migration of nearly 11 million enslaved Africans to the Americas influence their knowledge of plants? Vernacular plant names give insight into the process of species recognition, acquisition of new knowledge, and replacement of African species with American ones. This study traces the origin of 2,350 Afro-Surinamese (Sranantongo and Maroon) plant names to those plant names used by local Amerindians, Europeans, and related groups in West and Central Africa. We compared vernacular names from herbarium collections, literature, and recent ethnobotanical fieldwork in Suriname, Ghana, Benin, and Gabon. A strong correspondence in sound, structure, and meaning among Afro-Surinamese vernaculars and their equivalents in other languages for botanically related taxa was considered as evidence for a shared origin. Although 65% of the Afro-Surinamese plant names contained European lexical items, enslaved Africans have recognized a substantial part of the neotropical flora. Twenty percent of the Sranantongo and 43% of the Maroon plant names strongly resemble names currently used in diverse African languages for related taxa, represent translations of African ones, or directly refer to an Old World origin. The acquisition of new ethnobotanical knowledge is captured in vernaculars derived from Amerindian languages and the invention of new names for neotropical plants from African lexical terms. Plant names that combine African, Amerindian, and European words reflect a creolization process that merged ethnobotanical skills from diverse geographical and cultural sources into new Afro-American knowledge systems. Our study confirms the role of Africans as significant agents of environmental knowledge in the New World.

Consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on medicinal plant selection: plant use for cultural bound syndromes affecting children in Suriname and Western Africa.

Folk perceptions of health and illness include cultural bound syndromes (CBS), ailments generally confined to certain cultural groups or geographic regions and often treated with medicinal plants. Our aim was to compare definitions and plant use for CBS regarding child health in the context of the largest migration in recent human history: the trans-Atlantic slave trade. We compared definitions of four CBS (walk early, evil eye, atita and fontanels) and associated plant use among three Afro-Surinamese populations and their African ancestor groups in Ghana, Bénin and Gabon. We expected plant use to be similar on species level, and assumed the majority to be weedy or domesticated species, as these occur on both continents and were probably recognized by enslaved Africans. Data were obtained by identifying plants mentioned during interviews with local women from the six different populations. To analyse differences and similarities in plant use we used Detrended Component Analysis (DCA) and a Wald Chi-square test. Definitions of the four cultural bound syndromes were roughly the same on both continents. In total, 324 plant species were used. There was little overlap between Suriname and Africa: 15 species were used on two continents, of which seven species were used for the same CBS. Correspondence on family level was much higher. Surinamese populations used significantly more weedy species than Africans, but equal percentages of domesticated plants. Our data indicate that Afro-Surinamers have searched for similar plants to treat their CBS as they remembered from Africa. In some cases, they have found the same species, but they had to reinvent the largest part of their herbal pharmacopeia to treat their CBS using known plant families or trying out new species. Ideas on health and illness appear to be more resilient than the use of plants to treat them.

Why urban citizens in developing countries use traditional medicines: the case of suriname.

The use of traditional medicines (TMs) among urban populations in developing countries and factors underlying people's decision to use TMs are poorly documented. We interviewed 270 adults in Paramaribo, Suriname, using a stratified random household sample, semistructured questionnaires, and multivariate analysis. Respondents mentioned 144 medicinal plant species, most frequently Gossypium barbadense, Phyllanthus amarus, and Quassia amara. 66% had used TMs in the previous year, especially people who suffered from cold, fever, hypertension, headache, uterus, and urinary tract problems. At least 22% combined herbs with prescription medicine. The strongest explanatory variables were health status, (transfer of) plant knowledge, and health status combined with plant knowledge. Other predictive variables included religion, marital status, attitude of medical personnel, religious opinion on TMs, and number of children per household. Age, gender, nationality, rural background, education, employment, income, insurance, and opinion of government or doctors had no influence. People's main motivation to use TMs was their familiarity with herbs. Given the frequent use of self-collected, home-prepared herbal medicine and the fact that illness and traditional knowledge predict plant use rather than poverty or a limited access to modern health care, the potential risks and benefits of TMs should be put prominently on the national public health agenda.

African Rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.): Lost Crop of the Enslaved Africans Discovered in Suriname.

African Rice (Oryza glaberrimaSteud.): Lost Crop of the Enslaved Africans Discovered in Suriname. African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) was introduced to the Americas during the slave trade years and grown by enslaved Africans for decades before mechanical milling devices facilitated the shift towards Asian rice (O. sativa L.). Literature suggests that African rice is still grown in Guyana and French Guiana, but the most recent herbarium voucher dates from 1938. In this paper, evidence is presented that O. glaberrima is still grown by Saramaccan Maroons both for food and ritual uses. Saramaccan informants claim their forefathers collected their first "black rice" from a mysterious wild rice swamp and cultivated these seeds afterwards. Unmilled spikelets (grains with their husk still attached) are sold in small quantities for ancestor offerings, and even exported to the Netherlands to be used by Maroon immigrants. Little is known of the evolution of O. glaberrima, before and after domestication. Therefore, more research is needed on the different varieties of rice and other "lost crops" grown by these descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations in the 17th and 18th centuries and maintained much of their African cultural heritage in the deep rainforest.

Why Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands continue to use medicinal herbs from their home country.

AIM OF THE STUDY: When people migrate, they tend to bring along their medicinal plants. In order to improve migrant health, we need information on their traditional health beliefs and practices. This paper investigates medicinal plant use among Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 210 semi-structured interviews among 1st and 2nd generation Surinamese migrants were analysed to determine which medicinal plants were used, for what purposes, which demographic, socio-economic or psycho-social factors play a role in the choice for traditional medicine and to clarify people's personal motives to use herbs. Variables associated with medicinal plant use were identified by using the Pearson gamma2 test and the two-sample t-test. After selecting significant variables by means of bivariate analyses, multinomial logistic regression with stepwise forward selection was used to assess whether medicinal plant use could be explained by a combination of these variables. RESULTS: More than 75% of the respondents used herbal medicine, and 66% did so in the past year. Herbs were more frequently employed for health promotion (39%) than for disease prevention or cure (both 27%). Almost half of the respondents who had been ill the last year had used herbal medicine. More than 140 herb species were mentioned during the interviews. Plant use was often related to certain culture-bound health beliefs. Spiritual baths were the most popular traditional practice, followed by genital steam baths, bitter tonics, and the consumption of bitter vegetables. Afro-Surinamers more frequently used herbal medicine than Hindustani. The WINTI belief strongly influenced plant use, as well as the occurrence of an illness in the past year, and frequent visits to Suriname. Age, gender, income and education had no significant effect on the use of traditional medicine. Surinamers stated that they used medicinal herbs because they grew up with them; herbs were more effective and had fewer side effects than conventional therapies. CONCLUSIONS: As long as certain culture-bound beliefs and health concepts remain prevalent among Surinamese migrants, and ties with their home country remain strong, they will continue using medicinal herbs from their country of origin. More research is needed on the health effects of frequently used medicinal plants by migrants in the Netherlands.

Bathe the baby to make it strong and healthy: plant use and child care among Saramaccan Maroons in Suriname.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Young children are vulnerable to a range of illnesses and evil forces. Ethnobotanical folk remedies often play a major role in combating these afflictions. Here we show that plant use is highly valued and practiced within the Saramaccan Maroon Society in Suriname to maintain the general health and well-being of children. AIM OF THE STUDY: To assess the plant use importance in child care, we (1) quantified diversity and current status of herbal pharmacopoeia used in child care and (2) elucidated the reasons why care takers (mostly mothers) use these plants. METHODOLOGY: We collected botanical vouchers of plants used in child care, carried out an ethnobotanical household survey with 105 women and interviewed 19 key informants. RESULTS: A total of 178 plant species were used in child care for different purposes. Preventive practices were preferred over curing remedies and plants were most frequently used to keep young children strong and healthy. Child care had a strong magical connotation. Bathing proved to be the most important type of application, often combined with drinking small amounts of the bath water. CONCLUSIONS: Plants play an important role in child care, but more research is needed on how Maroon plant use reflects actual health problems in young children in the Surinamese interior.