What Medicines Come from Australasia?

By Danae
The Australasia Rainforest is located in Australia on the northwest shore, the Spice Inlands, Indonesia, New Guinea, Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Cambodia, India, and China. These are some plants that are located there:

Banana and Plantain, (Musa x paradisiacal) These plants are found in the Banana family.
Bananas and plantains are very alike and closely related. Plantains, on the other hand, are used more for a starch than a fruit. Both are native to Australia, but are now grown in the many tropical forests. Though commonly the plantains are called "trees", they are actually the world's largest herbaceous plants, but they do not have woody stems like trees do.

Banana Tree

Plantain
Sugar Cane Sugar Cane, (Saccharum officinarum) These plants are found in the Grass family.
Sugar cane can grow up to 10 feet tall and are rich in sugar. The stems of are crushed to remove the sweet juice, which is then processed to get sugar or the a juice that is used to make a medicine. The juice is used to make alcohol. Alcohol is used to clean cut or just to clean grems off of something. Some parts of sugar cane are used to make some cough drops.
Mace, (Myristica fragrans) Mace comes from in between the lining nutmeg shell and it's outer hush. Since mace comes from nutmeg it has the same medical purpose.

Mace (Myristica fragrans)

Nutmeg
These plants are found in the Nutmeg family. Nutmeg come from a group of inland called the Spice Inlands. Nutmeg has seeds in it's insides. The seed is in a mottled yellow casing. Nutmeg is a edible fruit, the almost the size and shape of a small peach. Nutmeg's medicinal propose is to treat diarrhea, vomiting and nausea.
Bamboo Bamboo, (Bambusa spp. Phyllostachys spp.). These plants are found in the Grass family. Bamboo is best known for its hard stems. When the stems are crushed, they are curshed into bamboo juice.

Sources: http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/NewGeog/Habitats/World.htm, http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/spiceref.html, http://www.itmonline.org/arts/bamboo.htm

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