BIO 301D Chapter 11: CHAPTER11.docx
Document Summary
The treatment and prevention of disease predates history, and all human societies have practiced the curative arts whether effective or not. Ethnobiology is the study of the interplay of animals and plant within human societies. Not surprisingly, most of our modern pharmaceutical medicines come from plant alkaloids derived from original herbal folk medicine. It is thought that primitive man learned self medication by observing the wild animals that were such an integral part of his world. Medicinal plant and mineral use is not unique to human societies. Other animals use plants and soil minerals for preventive and curative purposes. They do so for the same reason that chimpanzees swallow rough leaves; to remove intestinal parasites. Other apes and birds are known to swallow different leaves for purgative reasons as well. Rats eat clay and certain monkeys eat charcoal to absorb and reduce toxins. It has been discovered that clay-eating cattle reduce harmful intestinal bacteria and viruses from their guts.
