In this chapter
- Bark Chewingchimpanzee self-medication with a bitter plant, the criteria that establish it, and the compounds in willow and other barks
Questions this chapter answers
- Do wild animals medicate themselves, and how can that be proven?
- Is willow bark the same thing as aspirin?
No: it carries salicin, which the body turns into salicylic acid, so it works like a gentler aspirin rather than being aspirin.
- Which barks are still taken today for their effects?
Short answers only. Chapter 2 gives the full account, with 3 footnotes to 3 sources.
Sources
3 footnotes to 3 sources. Full references are in the bibliography.
- Huffman, Michael A. and Mohamedi Seifu. “Observations on the Illness and Consumption of a Possibly Medicinal Plant Vernonia amygdalina (Del.), by a Wild Chimpanzee in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania.” Primates 30, no. 1 (1989): 51–63. DOI 10.1007/BF02381210.
- Huffman, Michael A. “Self-Medicative Behavior in the African Great Apes: An Evolutionary Perspective into the Origins of Human Traditional Medicine.” BioScience 51, no. 8 (2001): 651–661. DOI 10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0651:SMBITA]2.0.CO;2.
- Weyrich, Laura S., Sebastian Duchene, Julien Soubrier et al. “Neanderthal Behaviour, Diet, and Disease Inferred from Ancient DNA in Dental Calculus.” Nature 544, no. 7650 (2017): 357–361. DOI 10.1038/nature21674.