3min chapter

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

The Tim Ferriss Show

CHAPTER

What Is the Medical Legacy of the Rain Forests?

No major medical compound has ever been developed from an eastern brazilian rain forest plant, and that is undoubtedly because the bo tokutos and other tribes were obliterated before any ethnobotanical studies were ever carried out. We are learning that rain forest animals also know and use plants for therapeutic purposes. American aviators preparing to fly over the jungles of indo china during the second royal war were taught that the best way to survive if shot down was to eat what the monkeys eat. While 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.

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