Transcript

#537: The Hidden Knowledge of Animals — Mark Plotkin on Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

Well hello boys and girls, this is Tim Ferris, and welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show. This special episode features Dr. Mark Plotkin. He is a very popular guest, and he's back by popular demand on many levels. Mark, you can find him at Doc MarkPlotkin, P-L-O-T-K-I-N on Twitter. is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon conservation team or ACT A C T. Done a lot of work with ACT. They have partnered with roughly eighty tribes in South America. Predominantly, to map and improve management and protection of roughly one hundred million acres of ancestral rainforests. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice. which is one of the most popular books ever written about the rainforest. His most recent book is The Amazon, subtitle What Everyone Needs to Know. And you can find my first interview with Mark where we cover his bio, his amazing amazing resume, his adventures with Richard Evan Schultz with indigenous tribes, everything he's learned from

Western science and the various compounds he has firsthand experience using at Tim.blog slash Markplotkin. He's also host of the Plants of the Gods podcast. Through which you can learn about everything from hallucinogenic snuffs to the diverse formulations of Curare. Each episode basically covers a given. Plant Curare, by the way, doesn't just relax the muscles of the body and lead to asphyxiation. if used for hunting, for instance. Uh it also led to modern

Anesthesia. in many senses. So there's a lot to it. So check out Plants of the Gods. Today's episode focuses on how animals use medicinal plants and it has some wild stories related to what we can learn and what we can use. From uh the behaviors of cows, penguins, pigs, frogs, and everything in between. There's a lot of hidden wisdom.

in nature. And this particular audio is pulled from a chapter in Mark's book titled Medicine Quest, subtitle In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. I read the book, I loved it. And I asked Mark if he'd be willing to record this chapter in audio to share with you all. So he made some updates. Made some tweaks. He agreed, and here we are. So

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At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. And then also question. No, I'm just seeing it. I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal and those cellar. No In this week's episode of Plants of the Gods, we want to look at Plants of the Apes.

How animals use medicinal plants and how poisoned art frogs get their poison. Biologists studying animals in the wild are typically discouraged from giving their study animals names so as not to anthropomorphize them. In other words, not to think of them as friends or pets or anything like that. Jane Goodall, one of the greatest field biologists of all time, however, has always disagreed. I overheard a most interesting discussion between Hern and another biologist in the early nineteen eighties. The zoologist asked.

Why do you give your chimps names? Is that really scientific? Without missing a beat, Jane asked him. Do you have a dog? Yes, he replied. Does your dog have a personality? she asked.

Of course, he said. Well, said Jane. I bet my chimps have at least as much personality as your dog. Many years later, when I was studying the history of wine as medicine in the ancient world, covered in an earlier podcast episode, I mentioned the project to Jane.

You know that drinking alcohol wasn't invented by humans, don't you? she asked. Chimps periodically get drunk on fermented marula fruit, as do elephants and baboons and other species as well. As an ethnobotanist who studies how indigenous peoples find and use medicinal plants of the rainforest, Bish. Was a revelation. Could some of this medicinal plant wisdom of the tribal peoples have been first learned of?

From the animal kingdom? In the summer of nineteen eighty one, I had the opportunity to wander in the once great rainforests of eastern Brazil. The early European explorers were awestruck by the beauty and diversity of these tropical forests. Which stretched an enormous unbroken arc. From the eastern most tip of Brazil

Hundreds and hundreds of miles south into what is now Paraguay. And northern Argentina. However, what remains is a fragment of what once was. Small isolated pockets of forest. Home to a handful of species.

More than ninety six percent of the original rainforest cover has been destroyed. And as I wandered through those distant patches of jungle, the sounds of trucks Bulldozers. Radios and human voiced me on all sides, a constant reminder that our civilization was in the final throes of

A little. That was left. The forest itself seemed almost empty. The large terrestrial mammals like the jaguar and the peckery that characterize the South American rainforest had been hunted out so thoroughly that I saw not even a pair of footprints. The haunting calls the Toucans and the piercing screeches of the scarlet macaws had long been stilled.

Of course, these spectacular animals were not the only components that had been eliminated from these ecosystems. In the course of preparing for my trip, I had comb through the early accounts of the first European explorers who who had ventured into these jungles five hundred years earlier. The reports were filled. With tales of the tribal warriors who once dominated this complex and enchanting landscape.

Though the jungle had been reduced by over ninety percent of its original range. Tribes like the Botokudos and the Tupiniquin had been completely exterminated long before my arrival. So what is the medical legacy of these indigenous peoples and the once great forests in which they thrived? All of the commercial medicines derived from the rainforests of Africa, Asia, and the Americas Were initially extracted from plants.

First observed in use. No major medical compound has ever been developed from an eastern Brazilian rainforest plant, and that is undoubtedly because the Botocuros and other tribes were obliterated before any ethnobotanical studies were ever carried out. Without indigenous peoples to guide us. how best to determine which plants merit laboratory investigation.

Of the sixteen parks and protected areas in the country of Suriname in the northeast Amazon north of Brazil, for example, twelve have no indigenous peoples living within the borders or nearby, a situation increasingly common in the tropics. If we're to find the new and useful compounds that do occur in the plants, How best to proceed? American aviators preparing to fly over the jungles of Indochina during the second world war were taught that the best way to survive if shot down was to quote Eat what the monkeys eat.

While the overarching value of this advice was probably psychological. because some monkeys have chambered stomachs capable of digesting leaves that would poison or possibly kill a human, this recommendation may ironically prove more beneficial for medicinal purposes. Let me explain. We are learning that rainforest animals also know and use plants for therapeutic purposes. A most extraordinary example comes from research.

on an endangered species of primate in the same rainforests of eastern Brazil. In the early nineteen eighties, Karen Stryer, then a Harvard graduate student in biological anthropology. traveled to the eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. To conduct research on motor keys. Also known as woolly spider monkeys.

The largest and most ape like of the New World monkeys. Strier's studies soon led her to some surprising conclusions. The diet of Mora Keys proved much higher in tannins than those of other monkeys. Because Tannin comprise about fifty percent of the anti dysentery drug enterovia form, the Harvard scientist wondered if the primates were in fact modifying their diets to kill parasites

Parasite infestation. Subsequent investigation revealed that the Moricis in this forest were completely free of parasites. Highly unusual for a rainforest primate. And several of these plants are identical to or closely related to species used By Amazonian indigenous peoples.

to control intestinal parasites. Prior to the onset of the breeding season, Stryer noted that the Moraese diet consisted primarily of the leaves of two tree species rich in antimicrobial compounds. During that same time of year, the Morockees visit the so called monkey ears tree, so named because of the shape of the fruit. To feed. As a general rule.

When monkeys find trees laden with edible fruit, they gorge themselves until little remains. Yet Streyer wrote that the Moriese consumed a small portion of the fruits before departing, and quote, as if they only needed a taste to be satisfied, end of quote. Once back at Harvard, she learned that these fruits are rich in Mm.

Stymosterol. A chemical employed in the manufacturer of progesterone. Which is itself used in human birth control. Pills. Plant hormones can affect animal fertility. Did the monkeys of this forest discover the birth control pills

Tens of thousands of years before their human cousins did. Primatologist Ken Glander of Duke University has spent decades studying the howler monkeys of Central America and reached conclusions that parallel those of Karen Stryer. Glander hypothesizes that the howler monkeys eat a selection of plants that allows them to determine the sex of their offspring. He notes that female hollers consume certain plants before and after copulation that they do not eat at any other time. Over decades of study, Glander found that some howlers bore only male offspring,

While others produced only females, an outcome unlikely due to chance. Female sperm that is those that carry an ex Chromosome. Do better than male sperm. which carry a Y chromosome in an acidic environment, and vice versa. Could female hollers be controlling the chemistry of the reproductive tract, and if so, why?

Glander suggests The plant derived estrogen like chemicals may be responsible. He notes that males in a monkey troop often pass more of their genes to the next generation than females were able to do. This would explain why it is often advantageous for a female to produce more males or Or if there already exist an overabundance of males. Why female offspring? would be preferable.

The study of how animals use plants for medicinal purposes has been termed zoopharmacognosy. The spelling is in the show notes. But her observation of this phenomenon is without question an ancient practice. Who has not watched a dog swallow grass to induce vomiting when the animal has eaten something unhealthy that it wishes to regurgitate? In a thought provoking and classic research paper, the brilliant ecologist doctor Dan Jansen at the University of Pennsylvania wrote I would like to ask if plant eating vertebrates may consume plants on occasion as a way of writing their own prescriptions.

And sometimes animals teach us by their wisdom, but other times by their mistakes. Fatal culinary errors made by North American cows in the early part of the twentieth century, for example, led to the development of several blockbuster drugs. One Saturday afternoon in february nineteen thirty three, in the middle of a howling blizzard, A Wisconsin farmer appeared in the office of chemist doctor Carl Link, carrying A bucket.

The man had driven almost two hundred miles from his farm near Deer Park to seek help from the state veterinarian headquartered at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was the weekend, however, and the vet's office was closed, so the desperate farmer wandered into the first building he found where the door was not locked. The biochemistry building. The blood in the bucket he carried would not clot.

Several of his cows had recently hemorrhaged to death, and now his bull was oozing blood from his nose. He had been feeding his herd with the only hay he had on hand, but Spoiled. Sweet clover. This hemorrhagic disease had first been reported in the nineteen twenties from both North Dakota and Alberta, Canada. While specialists determined that feeding the animal spoiled sweet clover was the cause of this malady, they were not able to cure it.

Nor were they able to isolate the compound in the clover that caused The problem. Their recommendation. Destroy the spoiled forage and transfuse. Unfortunately, however, the farmer lacked an alternative fodder to feed his herd, and he was unable to perform blood transfusions.

In a snowstorm in rural Wisconsin. During the depression. Troubled by his inability to assist the poor man, Link mentioned the problem to German postdoctoral student Eugene Scheffel. Shuffle.

An educated and idealistic fellow fond of quoting Goethe and Shakespeare undertook the spoiled clover conundrum as a personal crusade. He and his colleagues the clover for seven years before identifying and isolating the cause of its lethality, a chemical they named Dicumarol. They correctly hypothesized that If too much caused a hemorrhage,

A minuscule amount. might prove to be a useful anticoagulant. Today. Dicomerol and its synthetic analogs are commonly employed in humans as anticoagulants for particularly for the prevention and treatment of pulmonary embolism and venous

Thrombosis. The clover analysis serves as an example of a single species yielding a multitude of useful products. Noting that one of the synthetic analogs seemed to induce particularly severe bleeding in rodents Link proposed testing it as a rat poison, thinking it might lack the obvious dangers of more toxic rodenticides. Like strict nine.

Research on this compound was bankrolled by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Acronym W A R F When it proved effective, it was named warfarin. Despite the Bellico's connotation, the name comes from the acronym of the alumni group. Not declaring war.

On rodents. In early nineteen fifty one, an army inductee tried to commit suicide by eating warfarin. He failed to kill himself, but did manage to induce a classic case of hemorrhagic sweet clover syndrome. The unhappy soldier was successfully treated with transfusions of normal blood and coagulants. This bizarre incident, however, was

led to studies and eventual approval of warfarin, then named cumadin, as an anticoagulant for human patients. How many cardiac patients realize that their physicians are prescribing rat poison for their ills. Yet another aspect of animal behavior. has led us to other therapeutic leads.

A surprisingly wide variety of creatures ingest and store toxic natural compounds in their own bodies. Yeah. They do this not for medical purposes, but to employ the poisons for their own purposes, either to equip themselves with the ability to deliver a poisonous bite or Or to deter predators from eating them. This is the case With the poisonous puffer fish.

A deadly nerve poison known as tetratotoxin occurs in dozens of puffer f species. These fish concentrate the poison in their internal organs. Though the logical correlation is that humans would go to great lengths to avoid these toxic denizens of the deep. Puffer fish are considered a delicacy in Japan. Chefs must undergo special training and then be licensed by the federal government before being permitted to prepare this sought after delicacy for consumption.

Despite the rigorous preparation, accidents do happen. Every few years someone is poisoned. The result? General numbness. Loss of muscle control, and then less treated. Death.

Intrigued by the numbness typical of tetratotoxin and venomation, Japanese physicians have used it as a treatment for pain caused by migraines or or menstrual cramps. Scientists were surprised to find that that the deadly bite of the blue ringed octopus also contained tetratotoxin.

Was it possible that the pufferfish and the octopus were creating the same poison? They found that neither the fish nor the octopus actually was capable of producing the poison. It was a bacterium known as Vibrio that manufactured it. The fish And the mollusk. We're ingesting the microbe and then storing the poison in their internal organs to deter predators.

In a way. The pufferfish and the octopus had done our research for us. Of the millions of microbes or billions of microbes in the sea, they had found one of the deadliest with potent medical applications and brought it to our attention, albeit In the most fatal fashion. The method of filtering a poison from another species and using it for protection has helped us understand how poison dark frogs

become toxic. Tropical American dart frogs contain myriad fascinating chemical compounds. Until relatively recently, however, we were unable to determine how the frogs made the poison. When raised in captivity, These tiny amphibians often failed to produce the same toxins.

Specimens captured in the wild and placed in captivity may keep their alkaloids, that is, the chemical compounds that were so poisonous, but their progeny had fewer and fewer of these alkaloids and in some cases none. Hawaii produced an even stranger phenomenon. Poisoned art frogs were released in the Manoa Valley on the island of Oahu in 1932. When the descendants of these amphibian immigrants were tested in the lab fifty years after the original introduction, scientists found two of the same types of alkaloids that are found in the original species, which is native to Panama.

Another type of alkaloid found in the panamanium specimens was uh was entirely absent. And scientists found an entirely new alkaloid in the Hawaiian frog that does not occur in the Panamanian version. What's going on? Poison Dart Frog authority John Daly hypothesized that one, the amphibians made the alkaloids themselves. Two, They made the alkaloids from something they consumed or Or three, they collected and stored the compounds from a component of their diet, much as the puffer fish does with tetrato toxin.

The answer to Daly's hypotheses seems to be A combination of all three. Some of the compounds or their precursors are found in poisonous insects eaten by the frog. Alkaloids are taken in and stored. From beetles, ants, and millipedes. Бо і вас на часто кісті.

of ingesting and sequestering any and all alkaloids when ants containing two different alkaloids were fed to the frogs. The little amphibians stored only one alkaloid in their skin and apparently excreted the other. How's that for tiny chemistry? And in some instances, the frogs were observed seeking out and consuming particular species of insects that harbor compounds that the frogs typically stored in their own skin. As with the octopus and the pufferfish, these little frogs were finding new and useful chemicals in nature long before we did.

In terms of intentionally using plants for medicinal purposes, the great apes of Africa are the most sophisticated members of the animal kingdom. Harvard primatologist Richard Rangham observed chimpanzees in Uganda's Kibali forest consuming a tropical daisy called a spelia in the early nineteen eighties. While chimps devour mostly plants in their largely vegetarian diet, Rangham made note of the unusual behavior surrounding consumption of the species. The leaves were carefully chosen and then swallowed. Furthermore.

The primate's faces appeared to indicate severe distaste, like a child taking castor oil. Because chimps like people are prone to parasitic infections, Rangham hypothesized that the monkeys were consuming these leaves for medicinal rather than nutritional purposes. Ringham brought Aspelia specimens to the lab for analysis and received startling results. The plant contained a novel compound which they named the rubrin that proved to have potent Fungicidal and vermicidal properties are

That is, it killed bacteria, fungi, and worms. Curiously, they also learned that this plant and related species are widely employed by African peoples for a number of medicinal uses, from treating cuts to cystitis to gonorrhea. This in turn raised another issue which Was it the use of this plant by the chimps that led people to experiment with it in the first place. Ethnobotanists, scientists like me, who study people's use of local plants, have long wondered how a culture learns which species harbor medicinal qualities.

While the process of trial and error clearly plays a significant role in this process, might not the plants employed by animals offer a natural starting place for For experimentation. The Thea Rubin story had an even more bizarre footnote. When scientists retested a spelia in the lab, They only found the arubrine in the roots of the plants, which the chimps do not eat.

African European, Japanese, and American research teams have repeatedly confirmed that the primates consume only leaves. Why then are parasite ridden chimps in Eating the leaves. Primatologist Michael Huffman, an American scientist who lived in Japan and works in Tanzania,

Found the answer in an ingenious bit of field research. Huffman and his colleagues. found that the chimps droppings often contained both as speleia leaves and intestinal worms that had been impaled on stiff tiny hair, known as trichomes, on the leaf surface. Though the chimps were taking the leaves as medicine, it was not a chemical that killed the parasite, but a physedy that simply scraped out and impaled the offending organism. Huffman christened this process the Velcro effect.

Because of this research, however, scientists had indeed discovered a new antibiotic. Hoffman. who was inspired to choose a career in primatology by his childhood fascination with the book Curious George, Eventually collected concrete evidence. That the chimps.

We're employing other plants as chemical medicines rather than just botanical velcro. Huffman has focused much of his field research on the Mahali region of Tanzania along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, close to where the explorer Henry Morton Stanley found David Livingston more than a century ago, and about one hundred miles north, of Jane Goodall's famous site at Gombe Stream. There.

Huffman's guide and mentor. is Mohammedi Seifu Kalunde. A soft spoken elder of the local Watongwe tribe. Kalunde is both a skilled naturalist and a renowned herbalist. Kalundi and Huffman.

were tracking a sick female chimp in november nineteen eighty seven When the chimp stopped in front of a Vernonia bush of the Daisy family, tore off a branch and began peeling the bark. Ten years later. Hoffman still vividly recalled that

The events that transpired. Quote. Mohammed said. That is very strange. I don't know why she's eating that, because it's very bitter. I asked, Do they eat it a lot? And he said no.

Then I asked him if his people made use of it, and he said yes. We take it for stomach problems. Pernonia represents one of the most important and widely used medicinal plants of the African continent, in fact. In Ethiopia, it is valued as a treatment for malaria. People in South Africa use it for amoebic dysentery.

Tribes people in Zaire. Use it for diarrhea. And the Angolans Employ it for upset stomach. In Kitongway

The language of Huffman's guide and mentor Kalunde. The name for Vernonia is An John Saw. Which means bitter leaf. And the real medicine. As they watched the sick chimp together, she finished peeling the bark and began chewing on the stem. She did not swallow it, however, but spit out the chewed remains, only ingesting the bitter sap.

Huffman doubts the sap is quote an acquired taste Consumed for gustatory purposes. The flavor is exceptionally foul. Jane Goodall once performed an intriguing experiment, which probably has some bearing on Huffman's observation. When she gave sick chimps Bananas laced with the antibiotic tetracycline.

They readily devoured them. However, when she offered the same drug laden fruits to healthy chimps, They refuse them. Hovman and Kalunde. continued to follow the sick chimp, which made a rapid recovery.

Prior to consuming the plant sap The chimp was suffering from constipation, Malez and lack of appetite. A day later. She'd made a spectacular recovery.

The researchers had trouble keeping her in sight as she began climbing ridges. At a rapid clip. Of course, a single observation of a single sick chimp. cannot be considered convincing proof in and of itself. Yet in December of ninety one, the research team made similar observations that added createn to their theory.

Huffman and Kalunde observed another sick chimp eating Vernonia and managed to test their hypothesis. As they tracked the chimp, they collected samples of her droppings for laboratory analysis. At the time of the first collection, the stools contained 130 nematode eggs per gram. Less than twenty four hours later, the egg level was reduced to fifteen per gram, and the chimp had resumed hunting, an energy intensive exercise that she appeared unable to perform the day before. When the researchers calculated exactly how much of the plant the animal had ingested, they found that her dosage was almost identical to that taken

By ailing tribes people. twenty four hours was identical for both people and chimps, and though the plant was a common and available year round. Chimps.

tended to consume it only during the rainy season. On parasite infections. are most prevalent. Working with Japanese colleagues Huffman had the plan chemically analyzed.

Lab work revealed two types of chemical compounds that accounted for the plant's medicinal uses. The plants are rich in sesquaterpen lactones, chemicals found in many botanical species known to have anti-worm, anti-amoeba, and antibiotic properties. New sesquaterpene lactones found in these plants demonstrated significant activity. Activity against Lishmaniais, a common and defiguring tropical disease, as well as drug resistant falciparum malaria. Appropriately.

The first commercial use of these Vernonia extracts may be for animals rather than people. Huffman has collaborated with colleagues in both Denmark and Tanzania to determine the efficacy of Rinonia extracts in killing a nematode by the scientific name of Osteophagostum Stephanostomum. another instance in which the scientific name is longer than the creature itself. These nematodes and their close relatives cause significant loss of livestock, particularly in the tropical world. Current treatments, while effective, are often expensive by third world standards and simply inaccessible.

The quality of livestock husbandry in the tropics could be vastly improved by providing farmers with a plant they can grow and use to kill parasites effectively. Yeah. Just a quick thanks to one of our sponsors and we'll be right back to the show. This episode is brought to you by UCAN, UCAN. What you eat and how you live, exercise, sleep, stress all play an important role in how your body handles glucose. main form of energy. You might think of blood sugar. That is

Glucose. When glucose levels are steady and you avoid spikes, you're improving your metabolic fitness. An important way to take control of your metabolic fitness is to eat and fuel with foods that help regulate blood sugar. To help enhance my own metabolic health, I was introduced to UCAN by Dr. Peter Atea, who said there is no carb in the world like it. UCAN's patented ingredient, Superstarch, has the remarkable ability to provide a steady release of energy without spiking blood sugar levels. I use UCAN's energy powders and low calorie bars. To maintain focus throughout. Long days.

For exercise, better performance when training, and to avoid fatigue without making metabolic compromises. When I need a Scooby snack, when I need a little pick me up, I reach for YouCAN. YouCAN has a variety of different products with Superstarch to help you balance your blood sugar from energy powders and bars to granola and almond butter. There's a whole suite. Check out my favorites at UCAN.co slash Tim. That's U C-A-N dot Co slash Tim, and save 30% on your first order. That's UCAN.co slash Tim. Tim. Even if developed successfully, Rinonia would not represent the first example of a useful tropical plant.

Finding its way into the medicine cabinet of the veterinarian rather than the physician. The fruit of the betel palm is the stimulant of choice in many parts of Asia. Or local people chew it wrapped in the leaf of local pepper vine. Alkaloids in the fruit provide chemical stimulus, and some claim that betelnut is as addictive as tobacco. Several decades ago.

Chemists isolated an alkaloid from the palm, which they call a recoline, because the scientific name for the palm genus is Arica. Although initially used by physicians as a human vermifuge, that is, to kill parasites, areclene was eventually judged Too toxic for our own species. And is currently employed as a treatment for parasites. And animals.

Animals often prove tougher than humans do. They don't suffer the side effects some drugs cause in people. Few animals live as long as our species, so they theoretically won't incur the deleterious effects that may result from taking a drug for many decades. Hence, many of the drugs, both natural and synthetic, currently in development, will eventually be used for animals instead of people who

Or for both. The magnitude of the veterinary market is enormous, encompassing everything from domestic dogs and cats to zoo animals to cattle, pigs, sheep, and horses that serve as the basis for agricultural operations all over the world. In fact, the annual global value of veterinary drugs is is estimated to be more than twenty nine Billion dollars. Almost thirty billion dollars a year.

Some plants harbor compounds potentially useful both for human and veterinary medicine. Fig trees dominate many tropical forests. where their fruit serve as major dietary components for both birds and primates. Chimps use the trees for medicinal purposes as well as food. In the Western Amazon, the sap of one species is so highly valued as a cure for parasitic infections that is bottled and sold commercially. The leaves of an African species are eaten by chimps in Tanzania.

Probably because they contain Protein destroying enzymes that kill nematodes, which, as we've seen, are the chimpanzees' most common intestinal parasites. The young leaves which the chimp seed contains six hundred percent more antiparasitic agent than do the older fig leaves, which shows the chimps are pretty good botanists. Fig sap is also consumed medicinally by another large mammal. The elephant.

Presumably, these pacchoderms value it for its antiparasitic nature, much as local people use the plant. But fig trees aren't the only medicinal plant consumed by the elephant. In the early nineteen forties, Scientists observe Asian elephants devouring the fruits of a legume of the genus Antata. Before embarking on lengthy treks, I Leading research is to hypothesize that the plant may serve as either a stimulant or Or a painkiller.

Or maybe it's just packaderm carboloading. For example, a World Wildlife Fund ecologist spent much of nineteen seventy five tracking and observing a pregnant elephant in Savo Park in In Kenya. The elephant had a standard routine of covering about three miles a day in search of edible plants. One day the mother to be walked almost twenty miles and devoured an entire tree of the Boreg family.

The scientist had never observed this creature eat the species before or after this particular incident, or Four days later, the elephant gave birth. While this is not proof of cause and effect, the scientists soon stumbled across an interesting connection. Pregnant women in Kenya. Prepare and consume a tea of the bark and leaves of the species to induce either labor or abortion.

When Michael Huffman related the story to his colleague Kalunde, the Kenyan replied that his grandmother had taught him that Watongwe women had used his plant for the same purpose in the distant past. Huffman noted that the Watongwe live in southwestern Tanzania, more than one hundred miles south of Savo, implying that the custom was probably the case in more than one elephant individual or population. According to Huffman, Mohamidi learned most of what he knows about medicinal plants from his late grandfather, who gleaned insight into the potential utility of the flora by observing the behavior of the local fauna. Kalunde related the tale of a sick African crusted porcupine that dug up and consumed the roots of a local plant known as Mulangele. The little creature soon recovered from bouts of diarrhea and lethargy, often the symptoms of a parasite infection.

Kalunde claimed that this led the Watongwe to begin employing Mulangalele to treat parasite infestations among themselves. Hoffman cautions that this story may be merely an interesting teaching device to pass important information down from one generation to another, and adds that medicinal plant use has never before been reported in porcupines. Can we afford to dismiss this as an allegorical tale for transmitting information to children and grandchildren, or should Mulangalele be investigated in the lab? This episode parallels an experience I had in the Northeast Amazon with an extraordinary tribal group known as the Maroons. When slaves were brought to the Amazon in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Many managed to escape from captivity into the rainforest. There they coalesced into tribal societies very much patterned on the African cultures from which they had been forcibly removed. They were warriors, perhaps by nature, but certainly by necessity, as they represented a severe threat to the plantation economy of the local colonies. As long as there was a home in the forest for runaway slaves, servants on the plantation were that much more likely to take up arms and or escape. In Brazil, the Maroons managed to organize themselves into the city state known as Palmares. Which was eventually raised to the ground by white plantation owners and their henchmen.

In Suriname, however, the Maroons were never conquered. And there these unique African American cultures continue to thrive. From an ethnobotanical perspective, the maroons were exceedingly interesting in that they have an origin end and a relationship with a forest different from the local Amerindians, as demonstrated by the ethnobotanist Bruce Hoffman. For example, they employ some plants for medicinal purposes that the Amerindians do not use. Because the Native Americans have lived in the forest for thousands of years and the Maroons have only been there for several hundred years, it's tempting to assume that the latter

know much less about the forest because they're relatively recent arrivals. I came to find out that this is not always the case. I was visiting the capital of Paramarabo, sitting on the terrace of a bar overlooking the muddy brown Suriname River that flows gently past the city. With me was Chris Healy, an American raised in Suriname, who's an expert on maroon art and culture. We're speaking about the people, the plants, and the animals of the forest, when he told me an exceedingly peculiar tale about the taper, the largest mammal of the Amazon rainforest.

According to Chris. The Maroons claim the tapers eat the stems of the Neku plant. defecate into forest streams and eat the fish that rise to the surface, stunned by compounds in the plants. In fact, Neku known elsewhere in Latin America as Barbosco or Chimbo, contains chemicals known as rotinoids that interfere with fish's ability to intake oxygen, s causing them to float to the surface if NEQ has been added to the water in which they swim.

Local peoples. Both. Amerindians and Maroons. Take advantage of this phenomenon by throwing crushed neku stems into the river and catching the fish that rise to the surface. This plant serves as the source of rotone, which is used as a biodegradable pesticide by organic gardeners and was in fact valued by American soldiers during the Second World War,

To kill mites. That infested their clothing. Thinking that the Native Americans know more about the forest and its creatures than the Maroons do, I queried several Amerindian colleagues about Tapers and Neku, but they steadfastly denied any connection between the two. However, several maroons that I interviewed told me that tapers do indeed consume Neku, defecate the remains in forest dreams, and so on. Does this mean that the maroons learned of the fish stunning capabilities of Neku from watching tapers?

Or is this merely something on the order of a fanciful tale concocted to teach youngsters about the value of the vine, much as Hoffman suggested, may have been the case with the Mulangalele. And the African crusted porcupine. One of the reasons to suspect that the Maroons may well have learned from the taper is that so much more evidence of animal use of medicinal plants has come to light since scientists began searching for it over the course of the past few decades. Chimps are the best documented plant use for medicinal purposes. And it may be argued that their utilization of healing plants is somehow not particularly representative of the plant kingdom.

Because these primates Are so closely related to us and so intelligent. The great apes are in fact known to employ over thirty species of plants for medicinal purposes. This may well represent what scientists call an artifact of collection, meaning that the most attractive Conspicuous and human like animals receive the most attention, hence we conclude that these species use more medicinal plants than other creatures. In fact, the more we look, the more we find.

Even the literature contains a long and extensive list of animals, mostly mammals, probably for the reasons noted above, consuming botanicals for purposes which are presumably therapeutic. A recent paper in Science Magazine provided by Yacobus Daroda of Emory University noted that fruit flies lay their eggs in high ethanol foods, like the fermented Marula fruit, so beloved by Jane's Chimps, to deter predation by wasps Wood ants add antimicrobial resins, essentially antibiotics. from pine trees to deter microbial growth, much as the ancient Greeks had added terebinth resin to wine to prevent spoilage, and sparrows and finches have been found to in fact add cigarette butts

to their nest to determine. Mite infestations because nicotine has long been used to repel insects. Another example is pigs who are notoriously prone to parasite worm infestations. Wild boars in both India and Mexico consume plants with known Antihelman think that has anti worm properties, pigweed in India, and pomegranate roots in Mexico. Yet there's an unusual twist to this pig story. In India.

Local people extract and use a worm killing medicine from the pigweed roofs. But though pomegranate root bark is known to contain an alkaloid that kills tapeworms, Neither the pig nor the pomegranate is native to Mexico. The Spanish brought both to the New World. the pigs nonetheless selectively seek out and consume the roots of this tree as their ancestors once did in the old world.

In the course of his decades of research on tropical plants and animals, The aforementioned ecologist Dan Jansen unearthed a paper published in nineteen thirty nine where Which noted that the Asian two horned rhinoceros was observed eating so much of the tannin rich bark of the red mangrove that its urine was stained bright orange. Tannins are a major component of some over the counter antidiarrheal preparations such as enteroviform. Janssen has noted that the concentration of tannins in the bladder of the rhino necessary to change the color of its urine was undoubtedly sufficient to have an impact on the

On parasites in the creature's bladder. or urinary tract. These animal plant interactions have also been observed outside the tropics. Sean Sigstead, a laconic Harvard trained ethnobotanist now living in Colorado, has focused his studies on the plants, animals, and peoples of the American West.

Sixteet's favorite plants are or a small genus of herbs known as Legusticum, but he's not the only one captivated by this somewhat nondescript little herb. When bears encounter the plant They exhibit peculiar behavior. Legusticum functions in effect.

as an Ursine catnip. Sixted once observed Legusticum roots thrown into a brown bear zoo enclosure and a brawl ensued. The victor carried the roots to a corner of the cage, chewed them up. Spit them out.

Rub them all over his face and body. Both grizzlies and polar bears have proven similarly enamored of this little plant. The Navajo's of Arizona taught Sixtad that the name for Lugusticum in their language translates into English as bear medicine.

These tribal peoples value this plant as a treatment for many ailments, treatments whose effectiveness is borne out by chemical analysis that documented the presence of compounds that are both anticoagulant and antibacterial, as well as other chemicals that may combat both fungi and insect vermin. To the Navajos, the bear is a sacred creature. In their creation tales, these animals are considered experts in the use of Of medicines. Siext was a bit surprised that his findings were considered so astonishing when he began reporting them in the late nineteen eighties. After all, he told me

Deer and elk have long been known to chew aspen bark, which contains compounds similar to aspirin. Why should bears be any less adept at using plants than these creatures? He also feels that people's amazement upon discovering that bears were using these plants may have more to do with our own perception and categorization. He went on to say, quote, We tend to place a somewhat artificial barrier between food and medicine, where an accurate description is probably better described as a complex mosaic. This animal behavior noted by Sigsted has also been observed in tropical America.

Long nosed relatives of the raccoon. have been observed rubbing the resin of a tropical relative of myrrh and frankincense into their fur, presumably to kill or repel lice, mosquitoes, ticks, and other noxious vermin. The Capuchin monkey of Tropical America have similar practices with but are known to utilize a wider variety of plant species.

Computians have observed rubbing eight different plants into their fur. Of these four, Himenea, Piper, Proteum, and Verola, rank among the most common medicinal plants used by tribal peoples of the Amazon rainforest, and at least two of these are used by native Americans to treat skin problems as well.

Caputian monkeys in Costa Rica massage a mixture of the Himanaea tree, which is a legume. And into their fur. The Surinam maroons collect the same dried resin and make it into a tea to treat diarrhea and burn it to keep away flying insects. Laboratory analysis has revealed that this resin harbors compounds that repel insects, and anthropologists observed these monkeys rubbing four other plants into their fur as well.

Peasants in the region use three related species to repel insects and also to treat skin problems, and the trio peoples who live just south of the Maroons in the northeast Amazon have repeatedly told me they watch and learn medicinal species by observing the primates in their rainforest home. So final example I want to talk a bit about birds. They also appear to be making use of plants as both medicines and pesticides. Investigators were puzzled as to why penguins had almost no parasites or other harmful microorganisms in their digestive tract. Further field study revealed that penguins were consuming blue-green algae on a regular basis, and these marine organisms are often loaded with potent chemical compounds. Other birds most definitely use plants for non food purposes, which could conceivably lead us to new and useful compounds in the process.

Hawks have long been known to place brigs of green leaves in their nest. This is important. Fresh material. Here's why. Birders now note that hawks select only the live branches of certain tree species and replace the dead or dying leaves in their nests with this fresh material every few days.

The red tail hawk, for example, uses the leaves of the cottonwood and quaking aspen. While the bald eagle, our national symbol, chooses the sedge and the needles of the white pine. In a classic study of this phenomenon, Brad McDonald of Rupon College found that seven species of raptors that is Birds like hawks and eagles. We're using over twelve species of plants.

Though other scientists have advanced hypotheses to explain this behavior From camouflaging the nest to advertising nest occupancy, McDonald's group tested these plants in the lab and found that all effectively repel insects. In this particular experiment, house flies. Although scientists suggest that these leaves are also noxious to other vermin like mites and bacteria. Because these birds are carnivore.

The adults regularly carry dead or dying creatures to the nest to feed their offspring. The blood and decomposing flesh of these prey items attract a steady stream of insects and bacteria which that have the capacity to weaken and kill the young birds. By using the green plants that they do

The adult raptor protect their offspring in what is probably the first known ornithological case of preventative medicine and maybe antibiotics. As well. Compared to the trees of the temperate forest, The chemical composition of rainforest tree leaves is relatively unstudied. In McDonald's research, he noted that antibacterial compounds had already been isolated from the leaves of one of these plant species before he began his study.

Similar investigations of whether tropical birds employ local leaves for repellent and or bacterial purposes are now underway. But Neil Reddig The foremost authority on the world's largest eagle, the Amazonian Harpy, has already observed that these magnificent creatures apply live branches of the giant mora tree to their nests in a similar fashion. And what might be an insect repellent for the birds might conceivably one day prove to be a safe and effective insect repellent.

Or antibiotic. For us as well. If we can find new painkillers from frogs. New stimulants from porcupines, new antiparasitics from penguins, new antibiotics from chimps, and new contraceptive from woolly spider monkeys are What else might be out there in the forest on the prairie or inside the coral reef?

being used by local species and awaiting our discovery of its benefit to our own species. What might have already been lost? When the Portuguese first arrived on the eastern shore of Brazil five hundred years ago, the population of Murray monkeys probably numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Now their population has been reduced to a few hundred individuals, and more than ninety percent of their once magnificent rainforest has been destroyed. Who knows what we lost? Either in terms of the actual chemicals, the species that produce them

or the primate knowledge of how to use them, not only for their benefit, but potentially for ours as well. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up. in the uh the world of the esoteric as I do, it could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off. for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com all spelled out and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

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