Big Pharma looks to Chinese medicine.
Opiate supply and demand
Solanaceous information
There’s a global online monograph of the genus Solanum called Solanaceae Source. Each species treatment includes illustrations, a clickable list of specimens, links to molecular data and a dot distribution map (which mashes herbarium specimen locality data with Google Maps), among other things. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds the project as part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventories mission. Collaborators are eligible for small awards in support of their contributions to the completion of the worldwide Solanum monograph.
The galactagogous flicker
So I’ve learnt a new word today: galactagogue, a substance that induces lactation. I came across it in the title of a paper ((Steve Froemming. Traditional use of the Andean flicker (Colaptes rupicola) as a galactagogue in the Peruvian Andes. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2006, 2:23)) in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, which seems to be admirably open access. The substance in question is the dried carcass of a bird called the Andean Flicker:
The bird’s use as a galactagogue appears to be motivated by both metaphorical associations and its perceived efficacy, and conceptually blends human and animal healthcare domains.
It’s really fascinating stuff. The paper has a list of Andean galactagogues, which includes many preparations derived from crops. Various wild plants and herbs are also used in this way in Europe, and some of the Andean remedies are likely to have been introduced in the 16th century, while others are native to the region. The flicker seems to be a pre-Colombian practice.
Dragon’s blood set to dry up
Having been involved in the botanical exploration of the Indian Ocean island of Socotra back in the early 90s, and also — more recently — having done some ecological niche modeling, I was fascinated to see these interests coincide in a recent paper in Biological Conservation. Italian and Yemeni researchers ((The Italian and Yemeni governments, UNDP and IUCN (among others) are financing a Socotra Conservation and Development Programme. Nothing like that when I was there, of course.)) have modeled the distribution of the Socotran endemic Dracaena cinnabari, the Dragonblood Tree, to predict what might happen to it with climate change. It’s not good. This flagship species, whose resin has been the source of a dye and medicine since antiquity, is looking at a halving of its potential area of distribution, due to drier conditions, and only a couple of its current localities will fall within what will remain suitable. Fortunately, they are near a protected area, and the authors recommend that its boundaries be expanded to include them.