I know I'm humanizing Rakus here but I'd like to think that, when he kisses the tree towards the end of the video, he does so out of gratitude for helping him. :-)
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Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#22Even the animals know that plants are medicine. Such a wierd thing that lebel these as alternative.
I don't think people label plants as inherently alternative medicine. Plenty of non-alternative (aka regular) medicine was originally derived from plants (e.g. aspirin). Things typically become labeled "medicine" when they've been work and have been tested. "Alternative" kind of works like a logical `not`, so applying de Morgan's law that implies that alternative medicine either has not been tested or doesn't work. O…
It's not about what people or scientists say. It's the wrong frame to think about it in.
Pharmaceuticals these days run as businesses, and its not financially beneficial for them to even quantify the medicinal qualities of chemically unprocessed plants. Because you can't build a competitive advantage around something like that. So, while they often take inspiration taken from plant based compounds, usually the essential compounds are extracted, a synthetic process developed to manufacture them, and only the medical properties of the resultant product studied via trials.
It would do well for publicly funded medicine to reserve some funding for quantifying the medicinal properties of plants used directly.
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#23Even the animals know that plants are medicine. Such a wierd thing that lebel these as alternative.
My uninformed opinion is that anything which hasn't been distilled into a single compound won't be called medicine by the medical industry. How they manage to study those that are only beneficial when converging with other compounds, I have no idea.
I have some background in pharmacology, particularly psychopharmacology and I can tell you that it's not even remotely true. There's so much studies out there... so, what kind of studies were you reading?
For example - Rapamycin/sirolimus, ephedrine, morphine, antibiotics (e.g. penicillins, cephalosporins), psilocin and psilocybin, are the first naturally occuring (in significant quantities) that came to my mind when thinking about some. Neither of these were studied only in any combination drugs (FDCs). And a lot of close derivatives of naturally occuring substances, like aspirin. This could be really a huge list (of both).
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#24That's pretty cool! Perhaps genetic or innate memory is how he knew what to do? Sort of like dogs eating grass when they are sick?
It seems odd to me the go to would be 'genetic' memory, when mammals pretty much universally engage in learning and cultural sharing.
I'm not sure about where these orangutans live, but my guess would be that, if it is not a thing the orangutans knew, centuries of living alongside humans... they probably picked up a thing or two. They're quite smart creatures.
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#25It's interesting for sure, but the mystery is how he gained that knowledge.
Is he just repeating what he's seen humans do or his ancestors?
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
My uninformed opinion is that anything which hasn't been distilled into a single compound won't be called medicine by the medical industry. How they manage to study those that are only beneficial when converging with other compounds, I have no idea.
I have some background in pharmacology, particularly psychopharmacology and I can tell you that it's not even remotely true. There's so much studies out there... so, what kind of studies were you reading? For example - Rapamycin/sirolimus, ephedrine, morphine, antibiotics (e.g. penicillins, cephalosporins), psilocin and psilocybin, are the first naturally occuring (in significant quantities) that came to my mind when…
How about referencing (with links) a bunch of concrete relevant studies from psychopharmacology then, to back up your claims?
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think people label plants as inherently alternative medicine. Plenty of non-alternative (aka regular) medicine was originally derived from plants (e.g. aspirin). Things typically become labeled "medicine" when they've been work and have been tested. "Alternative" kind of works like a logical `not`, so applying de Morgan's law that implies that alternative medicine either has not been tested or doesn't work. O…
>Things typically become labeled "medicine" when they've been work and have been tested Eh, sometimes. But often things labeled "medicine" are things that companies can get FDA approval for, patent, manufacture, ensure shelf stability, label with a brand, and sell to customers at a high margin. There are lots of plants that are proven to work but aren't sold to customers because they can't meet some of those criteria…
I don't know why your comment was dead/flagged, what you're saying isn't a new thing at all. If anyone's interested in similar things look up patent evergreening. As someone using life-saving drugs that are patented despite the creators of the said drug selling the rights for a dollar to prevent pharmaceutical capture, this stuff is irritating at best and deadly at worst.
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#28Obviously orangutans are much smarter as a species, they are know to pass down knowledge/behaviors, including tool usage, down generations. But there could be more to this behavior. A dog instinctively knows to eat grass when they have stomach issues and Alaskan Bears eat certain plants to expel parasites after hibernation. How do they know? Zoopharmacognosy is a fascinating subject that needs more research.
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#29That's pretty cool! Perhaps genetic or innate memory is how he knew what to do? Sort of like dogs eating grass when they are sick?
Orang Utan stay with their mothers for six to seven years to learn what to eat and where to find it, and visit their mothers until they reach the age of 15 or 16.
(says https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/5-remarkable-animal-mo...)
Re: Wild orangutan seen healing his wound with a plant
#30Obviously orangutans are much smarter as a species, they are know to pass down knowledge/behaviors, including tool usage, down generations. But there could be more to this behavior. A dog instinctively knows to eat grass when they have stomach issues and Alaskan Bears eat certain plants to expel parasites after hibernation. How do they know? Zoopharmacognosy is a fascinating subject that needs more research. https://…
Another one that I've been watching recently is chicks knowing to take dust baths with zero interaction with adult chickens. One reason for this behavior is apparently pest control.