Frankincense — traditional gift at this time of the year — is the resin of a tree called Boswellia papryrifera native to the Horn of Africa. Alas, a scientific study in the Journal of Applied Ecology proves that tapping the tree for resin decreases the number of flowers and seeds the tree produces, thus “potentially” harming the regeneration of the frankincense woodlands. Non-tapped trees produce three times more seeds than tapped trees, and those seeds are five times more likely to germinate. The authors say that collectors should make fewer taps per tree and allow long rest periods with no tapping.
Vitality herbs a big draw
DailyIndia.com reports that “vitality herbs” were the biggest attraction at a recent National Forest Expo in Bhopal, India, and we do not shirk our duty to bring you edited highlights across the entire range of agricultural biodiversity. Will the Indians harvest their herbal Viagras sustainably? Hardly matters; one that caught my eye, because I recognized the Latin name of the common spiderplant of a thousand windowsills, is Chlorophytum borivilianum and it is already being domesticated and grown commercially.
Picture from http://www.allayurveda.com/.
Protecting TK
There seems to have been a breakthrough – procedurally at any rate – at the WIPO discussions in Geneva on protecting traditional knowledge, folklore and expressions of culture (genetic resources are also on the table). Meanwhile, in Abuja, the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has launched a committee to boost research on traditional medicine.
Salute!
A study just published in Nature and reported in The Times here identified the particular class of the polyphenols found in red wine which confers the greatest health advantage, by suppressing production of a protein which narrows blood vessels. There’s been lots recently in the press about the supposed health benefits of moderate consumption of wine, in particular red wine, as part of the “Mediterranean diet.” Known as polymeric procyanidins, these polyphenols turn out to be present in particularly high concentrations in some wines from Sardinia and the Pyrenees. This is due to both the wine-making technique (the compounds are released from the seeds after a long period of fermentation) and variety (the Tannat grape from SW France is rich in these chemicals). The Cannonau wine from Nuoro (Sardinia) and the Madiran from Gers (France) have the highest levels of procyanidins, and it turns out that people from those areas are also of above-average longevity, especially the men.
Gorilla medicine?
Coincidentally, here’s a very detailed article which perhaps sheds some light on how some medicinal plants may come to be used by people. Aframomum melegueta is a herb in the ginger family which grows along the coast of West Africa. The seeds are sometimes called “Grains of Paradise,” and were traded as a spice in the 15th century, giving its area of origin the name of Grain Coast. The plant is used in traditional medicine, and biochemists at Rutger’s Biotechnology Centre have now isolated a powerful anti-inflammatory from the grains. But here’s the fun part: apparently, Western lowland gorillas really like Aframomum. Did local people learn to use the plant by watching the gorillas?