Taste shaped the use of botanical drugs

Food drugs as drivers of therapeutic knowledge and the role of chemosensory qualities

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Chemosensory qualities of botanical drugs are important cues for anticipating physiologic consequences. Whether a botanical drug is used for both, food and medicine, or only as medicine depends on taste preferences, nutritional content, cultural background, and the individual and overall epidemiological context.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We subjected 540 botanical drugs described in De Materia Medica having at least one oral medical application to a tasting panel. The 540 drugs were grouped into those only used for medicine (388) and those also used for food (152). The associations with chemosensory qualities and therapeutic indications were compared across the two groups. We considered 22 experimentally assessed chemosensory qualities and 39 categories of therapeutic use groups. We wanted to know, 1): which chemosensory qualities increase the probability of an orally applied botanical drug to be also used for food ? 2): which chemosensory qualities augment the probability of an orally applied botanical drug to be only used for medicine? and 3): whether there are differences in therapeutic indications between orally applied botanical drugs also used for food (food drugs) and botanical drugs applied exclusively for medicinal purposes (non-food drugs) and, if yes, how the differences can be explained.

RESULTS

Chemosensory qualities augmenting the probability of an orally applied botanical drug to be also used for food were sweet, starchy, salty, burning/hot, fruity, nutty, and cooling. Therapeutics used for diarrhoea, as libido modulators, purgatives, laxatives, for expelling parasites, breast and lactation and increasing diuresis, were preferentially sourced from food drugs while drugs used for liver and jaundice, vaginal discharge and humoral management showed significant negative associations with food dugs in ancient Greek-Roman materia medica.

CONCLUSION

Therapeutics used for ailments of body organs involved in the digestion of food and the excretion of waste products showed a tendency to be sourced from food drugs. Arguably, the daily consumption of food offered the possibility for observing post-prandial physiologic and pharmacologic effects which led to a high therapeutic versatility of food drugs and the possibility to understand benefits of taste and flavour qualities. The difference in chemosensory qualities between food drugs and non-food drugs is demarcating the organoleptic requirements of food rather than that of medicine.

Are we romanticizing traditional knowledge? A plea for more experimental studies in ethnobiology

In answer to the debate question "Is ethnobiology romanticizing traditional practices, posing an urgent need for more experimental studies evaluating local knowledge systems?" I suggest to follow-up on field study results adopting an inclusive research agenda, and challenge descriptive data, theories, and hypotheses by means of experiments. Traditional and local knowledge are generally associated with positive societal values by ethnobiologists and, increasingly also by stakeholders. They are seen as a way for improving local livelihoods, biocultural diversity conservation and for promoting sustainable development. Therefore, it is argued that such knowledge needs to be documented, protected, conserved in situ, and investigated by hypothesis testing. Here I argue that a critical mindset is needed when assessing any kind of knowledge, whether it is modern, local, indigenous, or traditional.