6min chapter

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

The Tim Ferriss Show

CHAPTER

The Species of Alkaloids in the Hawaiian Frog

When the descendants of these amphibian immigrants were tested in the lab, 50 years after the original introduction, scientists found two of the same types of alkaloids. Another type of alkaloid found in the panamanium specimens was entirely absent. And scientist found an entirely new alkaloid in the hawaiian frog that does not rin the panamanian version. Some of the compounds of their precursors are found in poisonous insects eaten by the frog. Alkaloids are taken in and stored from beetles, ants and milipedes. As with the octopus and the puffer fish, these little frogs were finding new and useful chemicals in nature before we did.

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