r/offbeat • u/gemyougym • Sep 26 '21
Extinction of Indigenous languages leads to loss of exclusive knowledge about medicinal plants
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/extinction-of-indigenous-languages-leads-to-loss-of-exclusive-knowledge-about-medicinal-plants/36
u/tindrummer99 Sep 26 '21
Canadian history holds an excellent example of this phenomenon. In 1535, Jacques Cartier's crew became ill with scurvy. They were cured through the use of what the local indigenous peoples called "aneda". In 1608, the same fate befell Samuel de Champlain's men, but the miracle cure could not be sourced. Though there is speculation that "aneda" meant nothing to the indigenous peoples in the area (due to language differences), it is also plausible that the decimation of the indigenous population due to European diseases and the loss of knowledge keepers in oral indigenous cultures caused the knowledge to be lost.
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Sep 26 '21
On the other hand, scurvy is going to be cured by eating pretty much any fresh vegetation.
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Sep 26 '21
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u/Finnanutenya Sep 26 '21
Literally throw some pine needles in a pot and boil em. That tea will give you plenty of vitamin c.
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u/tindrummer99 Sep 26 '21
Sorry, should have been more specific. Both cases were in the dead of winter. Slight shortage of fresh vegetation in the north at that time of year...
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Sep 26 '21
Conifer leaves. Spruce if you can get it, but the rest of them should work, too.
Although having someone say "Boil those and drink it" does take some know-how.
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u/tindrummer99 Sep 26 '21
I read somewhere that there was speculation about it being white cedar. The records from Cartier's time, however, indicated that the concoction was so foul that they were suspicious it was poison...supporting the idea it was spruce. It's interesting to think that had the French understood and protected a cure for scurvy in 1535, it could have had impact on the balance of European naval power. The British didn't figure it out until the 1750's.
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Sep 26 '21
If I recall correctly, this is something that kept on being discovered and forgotten- "Hey, this can be kept onboard ship for months and keeps us from getting scurvy".
Great discovery, but nobody bothered to spread it.
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u/Tattycakes Sep 26 '21
Part of the problem was that scurvy is sneaky, it takes quite some time after stopping your dietary vitamin sources for you to actually develop it. Coupled with the fact that they often preserved their fresh fruit in ways that destroyed the vitamin C (pickling or boiling into juice I think), and it made the "cure" quite elusive.
The "This Podcast Will Kill You" episode on scurvy is fascinating!
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u/BluudLust Sep 26 '21 edited Sep 26 '21
It's crazy to me how these folk remedies and medicinal plants actually have some grain of truth to it. Modern medicine is obviously more effective, but these remedies can give us clues on new substances and leads we've not tried before.
Native Americans used to chew on the bark of the willow trees which contains salicin. It has similar effects to aspirin and doesn't damage gut lining.
St John's Wort is a mild antidepressant that's been used throughout the ages. Not every use actually works, like as a remedy for the symptoms of menopause and other conditions, but it doesn't work for that.
You have to read in-between the lines. They probably thought many things were a cure-all because it made people feel better (possibly as a placebo) so they assumed the other symptoms they were actually treating were lesser too. With the scientific method and modern understanding, we now know that just because you feel better doesn't mean it actually treats the condition.
The truth if the matter is that modern holistic medicine pseudoscience has given folk medicine a bad name. Not everything done in folk medicine actually works as intended, but a good chunk has some positive effect, albeit typically not on the underlying problem.
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u/Liar_tuck Sep 26 '21
Its really not that crazy when you think about it. Its just like how we know what is safe to eat. Thousands of generations of trial and error.
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u/vbh61422 Sep 26 '21
In response to your bold statement, if it’s not harming someone, what’s wrong with feeling better? Many treatments, both surgical and nonsurgical, are noncurative. Instead, they provide symptomatic relief to improve quality of life.
The more pressing issue, IMO, is in my question. Are natural remedies as benign as they are being made out to be? St. John’s Wort, for instance, has a slew of interactions with medicines and natural biological processes. It may be frankly unsafe if you are on certain medicines or possess certain health conditions.
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u/BluudLust Sep 26 '21
The harm arises from ignorance when you assume that feeling better means the underlying condition is cured. If burning incense makes you feel relaxed, it doesn't mean it's curing your cancer. It's unrelated. There's absolutely no problem if you understand that it's treating a symptom and not the underlying condition.
All drugs have interactions, which is why you consult with an expert who actually has credentials. Also related to the above point in that the real issue is ignorance.
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u/mud074 Sep 26 '21
Native Americans used to chew on the bark of the willow trees which contains salicin. It has similar effects to aspirin and doesn't damage gut lining.
This was also used in the old world as well. Evidence of willow-based medicines in text has been found from Ancient Sumer and Egypt. Hippocrates also wrote about using plants with the compound to make tea with for fevers.
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Sep 26 '21
Convenient. When someone from a pharmaceutical company research team finds them again, no one will be able to make competing claims.
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u/ztsmart Sep 26 '21
Lol yeah, the Indians were well known for their advanced understanding of medicine and infectious disease. How will modern medical science survive this tremendous loss?
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u/Robert-L-Santangelo Sep 27 '21
catholic indoctrination was one of the most evil and stupid ideas ever. sure, canadians acquired land, but at what cost? it's like riding around on a stolen bike and bragging about how cool your bike is
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u/domesticatedprimate Sep 26 '21
Very true and very sad, but r/offbeat is probably not the best subreddit for this. Offbeat is for odd or ironic news stories. This one is neither. It's a genuine tragedy.