Ginger family from Bueng Kan Province, Thailand: Diversity, conservation status, and traditional uses

Abstract

Abstract. Ragsasilp A, Saensouk P, Saensouk S. 2022. Ginger family from Bueng Kan Province, Thailand: Diversity, conservation status, and traditional uses. Biodiversitas 23: 2739-2753. The objective of this study was to determine the diversity, conservation status, and traditional uses of Zingiberaceae in Bueng Kan Province, Thailand. The family Zingiberaceae was collected during field surveys in Bueng Kan Province, northeastern Thailand between January and December 2021. Three tribes, 13 genera, and 67 species of Zingiberaceae were found. The genera with the highest diversity were Curcuma (12 species), Zingiber (11 species), Globba (10 species), Alpinia (eight species), Kaempferia (seven species), Amomum (six species), Caulokaempferia (four species), Boesenbergia (three species), Gagnepainia (two species), Etlingera (one species), Hedychium (one species), Meistera (one species) and Wurfbainia (one species). Bung Khla district was found to have the most diverse species in this family with 64 species. The family was discovered in five ecosystem types, deciduous dipterocarp forest (20 species), mixed deciduous forest (21 species), dry evergreen forest (20 species), river basin (two species), and cultivated in home gardens (24 species). There were 41 native species found (62.68%), while 16 species (23.88%) were recognized as being cultivated in home gardens. The highest phenology rate was recorded from March to September. Thirty-eight species were reported to have the conservation status as rare species. Twenty-eight species were recognized as common species. Nine species, namely Alpinia macrostaminodia, Amomum biphyllum, A. wandokthong, Globba laeta, Boesenbergia baimaii, Caulokaempferia jirawongsei, Ca. Phutonkensis, Ca. phuwoaensis and Ca. phulangkaensis were recorded as endemic species to Thailand. Moreover, A. macrostaminodia, A. biphyllum, A. monophyllum, C. jirawongsei, Ca. phutokensis, Ca. phuwoaensis and Curcuma pygmaea, were found only in Bueng Kan Province, Thailand. This study reported nine species to be rare plants in Bueng Kan Province. Twenty-nine species of the family Zingiberaceae from Bueng Kan Province were presented in IUCN (2022): CR (1 species), DD (9 species), EN (2 species) LC (16 species), NT (1 species). The Zingiberaceae in Bueng Kan Province had popular uses as food, spice, rituals, and ornamentals. For the medicinal use of Zingiberaceae in this study, they were in relation to flatulence, laxative, diuretic, stomachache, treatment of inguinal hernia, uterine involution, antipruritic, cosmetic, skin disease, carminative, antiflatulent, intoxication, and tonic. In Thailand, 42 species of Zingiberaceae are reported for the first time to have traditional uses. Therefore, the information on the diversity, conservation status, and traditional uses are important as biological resources of the Zingiberaceae in Bueng Kan Province, Thailand.

Cytogenetic study in seven species of Zingiberaceae family from Bueng Kan Province, Thailand

“…The distribution center of this family is located in Southeast Asia. Worldwide, there are approximately 1,600 species of the 57 genera, and the largest genus is the genus Alpinia (Kew Science 2022; Ragsasilp et al 2022). Thailand has a ginger family, about 30 genera, and more than 300 species .…”

“…Thailand has a ginger family, about 30 genera, and more than 300 species . This family is unique in that every part of the plant smells of essential oils (Phokham et al 2013;Ragsasilp et al 2022). The ginger family has been used for many purposes, especially in food, ingredient, beverage, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, cosmetics, dyes, ritual plants, and economic plants, which was reported by several botanists- Khumkratok et al (2012), Leong-Škorničková et al (2015Leong-Škorničková et al ( , 2020, Wongsuwana et al (2015), , Boonma et al (2020), Jenjittikul and Ruchisansakun (2020), Soonthornkalump et al (2020), , , Ragsasilp et al (2022), Chumroenphat and Saensouk (2022), Bueng Kan Province is located along the Mekong river in northeastern Thailand and has many forests, rich streams, beautiful natural scenery, and a variety of higher plants, especially the family Zingiberaceae.…”

In Vitro Anti-Bacterial and Anti-Fungal Activities of Extracts from Different Parts of 7 Zingiberaceae Plants

“…But mostly, it has prostrate and horizontal rhizomes, massively expanding at the root ends. Zingiberaceae is mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions and mostly in Asia, Africa, and tropical America, with about 57 genera and 1600 species identified worldwide [3,4]. The Zingiberaceae family is commonly used as medicinal materials, food, spices, cosmetics, or ornamental plants [5,6].…”

Cytogenetic study of five species of medicinal plants from Maha Sarakham Province, Thailand

“…People in different regions of Thailand are increasingly taking advantage of plants from these natural resources. Therefore, the local plants in each community in different regions of Thailand are important, and the awareness of the benefits of local plants have been receiving increasing attention due to people in different regions increasingly making use of native plants from nature (Inta et al 2013;Khuankaew et al 2014;Cruz-Garcia et al 2016;Panyadee et al 2016;Saensouk et al 2016;Pholhiamhan et al 2018;Phumthum et al 2018;Junsongduang et al 2017Junsongduang et al , 2020Punchay et al 2020;Saensouk and Saensouk 2021d;Numpulsuksant et al 2021;Phatlamphu et al 2021;Saisor et al 2021;Ragsasilp et al 2022).…”

“…Therefore, villagers from Thailand cultivate medicinal plants in their home gardens, i.e., banana, basil, black pepper, cucumber, finger root, garlic, ginger, galangal, gooseberry, kaffir lime, lime leaves, lemon grass, mango, mint, pandan, pepper, sesame, shallot, tamarind, tomato, and turmeric, etc. (Pholhiamhan et al 2018;Saensouk and Saensouk 2021a;Numpulsuksant et al 2021;Phatlamphu et al 2021;Saisor et al 2021;Ragsasilp et al 2022). Several authors have studied the cytology of some species of medicinal plants, i.e., Banerji and Haldar (1942), Harada (1943), Majumdar (1953), Banerjee (1974), Bhattacharya and Ghosh (1979), Patwary et al (1989), Wang and Wang (1989), Uchiyama (1989), Forni-Martins andCalligaris (2002), Kundu (2005), Wang et al (2007), Feitoza et al (2010, Saensouk and Saensouk (2020).…”