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Between 1998 and 2001 the deaths of 16 Surinamese children were recorded along the Maroni River, which forms the border between Suriname and French Guyana. After a metabolic origin was eliminated, ethnobotanical research in the field led to a hypothesis of intoxication through the ingestion of ackee. Ackee (Blighia sapida) is a large green leafy tree of West African origin. Its unripe fruit contains large quantities of two toxic molecules: hypoglycin-A and hypoglycin-B, the former being the more toxic. We have developed a GC-MS procedure allowing us to demonstrate the presence of hypoglycin-A in the gastric fluid of one of the deceased children, and to compare the content of hypoglycin-A in fruit collected on the road to Paramaribo in Suriname (5.1mg/g) with samples from Burkina Faso (8.1mg/g) and Jamaica (9.2mg/g). Field research showed the misuse of this little-known plant by Maroon witch doctors. The Bushinengue witch doctors were informed about the dangers of ackee, and no new cases have been reported to date., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper is the first thorough analysis of takini, a hallucinogen used by the shamans of several peoples in Suriname, French Guiana, and the region east of the Para in Brazil. The drug is contained in the latex of the Brosimum acutifolium tree, and until now, its psychotropic properties appeared inconsistent with the more general medicinal uses of the tree in the surrounding region. Our chemical and botanical studies reveal that the active ingredient of takini is bufotenine; and that this compound is only contained in the subspecies Brosimum acutifolium Huber subsp. acutifolium C.C. Berg that is found in the same area of the eastern Guianas.