Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

gram (EPG) of faeces of an Oe. stephanostomum infection could be measured; it
fell from 130 to 15 in 20 hours (Huffman, 2001).
Most domestic or wild ungulates 6 that graze on rangelands with poisonous plants
do not succumb to these plants. Animals can cope with poisonous plants, using both
behavioural and physiological adaptations. Behavioural mechanisms converge on
postingestive feedback and aversive conditioning, as animals learn which plants
cause illness. Physiological mechanisms centre on detoxifying plant compounds in
the gut by rumen microbes or in the liver through enzymatic reactions that allow
toxins to be excreted. Domestic livestock are more often made ill or killed by toxic
plants than are wild ungulates, probably because wild animals have more
developed avoidance or detoxifying capabilities than do livestock (Pfister, 1999).
Stone Age - Middle Palaeolithic (180,000 - 22,000)
Evidence of the use of herbal remedies goes back some 60,000 years
to the Shanidar burial site at the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in
north-eastern Iraq, where the remains of a Neanderthal man were
uncovered in 1960 by Ralph Solecki (Solecki, 1975). Here there were
what appeared to be ordinary human bones 60-80,000 years old and
plant remains surrounded the dead man. Study of the plants suggested
that the plants may have been chosen for their specific medicinal
properties. Yarrow, cornflower, bachelor’s button, St. Barnaby’s thistle,
ragwort or groundsel, grape hyacinth, joint pine or woody horsetail and
hollyhock were represented in the pollen samples, Achillea-type,
Centaurea solstitialis, Senecio-type, Muscari-type, Ephedra altissima,
and Althea-type, all of which have medicinal properties. There was also
evidence of alcohol use, seeds belonging to the psfraisis plant, used in
pits and fermented to produce a primitive alcoholic drink, were found in
abundance next to the burial site (Lietava, 1992; Sommer, 1999).
25,000–13,000 BC
Medicinal plants were depicted at Lascaux, France, where the rock
paintings in the caves have been radiocarbon dated to 13,000–
25,000 BC. The Well Scene probably shows a shaman 7 in a trance
state induced by psychedelic substances.
Stone Age – Neolithic Age (7,000 BC)
7000–5000 BC In the rock cave paintings in the Tassili-n-Ajjer Mountains in southern
6 Ungulates = hoofed mammals
7 Shaman = person having access to the world of good and evil spirits