Abstract
When Rumphius undertook the task of botanical research in Ambon he set himself the highest standard and he was not put off by innumerable catastrophies and personal tragedies. The nine-volume Herbarium Amboinense contains descriptions and beautiful illustrations of 35 orchids, many with medicinal usage. This chapter will discuss the life of Rumphius and his opus from the viewpoint of twenty-first century taxonomy. Two orchids are also mentioned by Bontius, the pioneer of tropical medicine who was the first to describe beriberi, dysentery, other tropical diseases, and the orangutan. Studies by Heyne, van den Brink, Ridley, Alvins, Burkill, Mohamed Haniff and contemporary investigators are discussed.
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Teoh, E.S. (2019). Medicinal Orchids in the Malay Archipelago. In: Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_15
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