devance Posted December 15, 2011 http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-document-caterpillars-mimic-survival.html [“It’s very interesting how caterpillars can detoxify a plant’s poisonous chemicals and resynthesize them for their own chemical defense or for pheromones,” said Florida Museum collection coordinator and study co-author Andrei Sourakov. “We can look at the caterpillars’ metabolic systems to understand how they deal with secondary plant compounds, the toxic plant substances used for centuries as tonics, spices, medicine and recreational drugs.”] http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-scientists-toxicity-medicinal-peru.html [[The plants used in this study were collected in the field, at public markets and at the homes of traditional healers, or curanderos, all in Northern Peru. Botanists gathered material from each of 341 traditional medicinal plant species, dried the material and processed it in an industrial grinder. Two samples of plant material were taken from each species. One sample was submerged in 96 percent ethanol for seven days, and the other in boiling distilled water for one day—both traditional preparations of plant extracts. The solvents were evaporated to complete dryness and a concentration of each extract was removed for testing. Plant extracts were then diluted to various concentrations in vials. Brine shrimp (Artemia sp.), small invertebrates that dwell in sea water and other saline ecosystems, are frequently used in laboratory studies to evaluate toxicity values as a measure of median lethal concentration values, or LC50, as they offer a simple, quick and cost-effective way to test plant extracts. Brine shrimp larvae were submerged in 501 total vials of aqueous and ethanolic plant extract solutions, and scientists recorded their rates of mortality after 24 hours. ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- not a mimes human hatred http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-266303.html http://www.ihatemimes.com/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites