and insoluble, may be a primary benefit to the animal of plant consumption, and is an important additive in commercial companion‐animal feed. Plant‐eating behavior is coincident with meat consumption, and does not occur only in the absence of animal prey.
Figure 3.1 Wild wolf feeding on Alaskan salmonberries.
Source: Illustration by Ginger Dunlap.
Grizzly and black bears in Alaska are also notorious for copious consumption of wild berries, necessitating that Alaska Native and aboriginal Canadian berry harvesters must carry firearms for protection (as well as their domesticated sled dogs). Hunters have reported that during berry ripening season, grizzly bears actually have blue coloration from the berries interlaced in their fat deposits, and the meat acquires a sweeter flavor (Dr. Arleigh J. Reynold, DVM, PhD, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018, personal communication, 10 August).
Nonhuman primates frequently make use of plants and other natural resources to self‐medicate. The most frequent observations are ingestion of natural products to purge intestinal parasites. Chimpanzees in Tanzania have been observed to fold, and then swallow, whole Aspilia spp. leaves without mastication; there is no known nutritional value but the undigested rough textured leaves help to expel parasitic worms into the feces. Similar cases where monkeys have ingested certain plants to dislodge parasites have been recorded. Primate behavior of this kind has helped to guide scientists to previously unscreened plant material that may have antimicrobial or antiparasitic properties. One very intriguing recent discovery with primates involves lemurs in Madagascar who deliberately chew on and vigorously rub millipedes, causing them to release secreted toxins in defense. Only then, once the toxins containing benzoquinones are released, the lemurs eat the crushed insects and rub them on their genitalia in order to kill parasitic worms (Bittel 2018).
3.5 Probing the Mechanisms Behind Polyphenol‐rich Traditional Medicines Bioactivity
Traditional ecological knowledge concerning the medicinal use of polyphenol‐rich plants reaches back many hundreds and even thousands of years, but the naturopathic doctors and healers who routinely rely on wildcrafted plants are frequently loath to share their knowledge with anyone from outside the native communities. The reason for this reluctance has been the exploitation (and resultant overharvesting and/or theft) of native resources by outsiders in the past, which has undermined the authority and historical access of traditional healers (Andrae‐Marobela et al. 2012). The reductionist paradigm of Western science marginalizes the holistic approaches of wildcrafted medicine, and was imposed on top of indigenous knowledge systems during colonialism, which has made “bioprospecting” a disrespected term in the opinion of many elders in native tribal groups (Kellogg et al. 2010).
Harvest, attempted commercialization, and even in‐depth analytical research on indigenous polyphenol resources carries obligations related to ethics, equitable benefit sharing, and intellectual property, covered in part by the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity, a multilateral international treaty opened for signature in 1992). Close collaboration between scientists and members of indigenous communities is critical for thorough identification and validation of local, endemic plant resources (Schmidt and Cheng 2017), but these trust issues frequently prevent outsiders from gaining access into traditional ecological knowledge about culturally important species. In order to bridge these concerns, our collaborating laboratory teams from three US universities (www.gibex.org) joined together to produce a portfolio of mobile biodiscovery kits. The interactive experiments in the kits enable participation of both elders and youth in bioexploration and therapeutic lead discovery, focusing on indigenous local plants with a history of medicinal use in traditional ecological knowledge (Kellogg et al. 2010; Flint et al. 2011; McOliver et al. 2015). This unconventional approach provided a sustainable and equitable entrée into traditional cultures and local healing practices, and allowed us to interface with tribal groups in Africa, Asia, and the Americas to create a bridge between traditional knowledge and chemical/physical science discovery experiments.
The mobile discovery workshops have been added into high school and junior college curricula in several participating countries including the USA (Alaska and North Dakota). The mobile biodiscovery kits are simple, straightforward, rapidly deployed bioassays. Experiential learning is the key to resolving the bioactivity of the natural resources, and all of the demonstration/instruction takes place in a team‐centered environment. Initial scouting in the forest or field is led by traditional healers, identified plantings in the wild are coded with GPS coordinates, and samples of identified local medicinal species undergo botanical authentication and are vouchered as herbarium specimens. Next, small quantities of plant material (leaves, bark, roots, stems, fruits) are ground, and crude ethanolic extracts are prepared and tested in a series of screens (antifungal, antibacterial, antiprotozoal, enzyme inhibitory, etc.) (Table 3.1). Assays can be conducted using only a few grams of plant material, and allow the participants to identify bioactive properties of plants used in traditional medicines that have been underappreciated by modern pharma‐based medicine (Figure 3.2). The strategy has successfully engaged youth from junior high school to college age in science discovery that is hands on, and utilizes plants with intrinsic cultural significance (Kellogg et al. 2010, 2016). The traditional ecological knowledge of ethnic groups regarding harvest and use of polyphenol‐rich plants can be lost due to habitat destruction (wars, overharvesting, development or clearing of wild lands for agriculture), but it can also be sidelined or lost when younger generations lose interest in the traditional knowledge of their elders (Schmidt and Klaser Cheng 2017). Community elders report a loss of interest in traditions and subsistence foods among tribal youth, and with that disconnect, a shift to commodity and fast‐food diets which increases incidence of diabetes and obesity. Due to these trends, the mobile biodiscovery approach has been widely accepted and encouraged by tribal elders as a means to refocus on traditional values (Kellogg et al. 2010).
Following the leads provided by naturopathic healers in various global settings, the mobile biodiscovery approach was used to shed light on the mechanistic properties of some of the traditionally wildcrafted polyphenol‐rich plants.
3.5.1 Phlorotannins in Alaskan Seaweeds/Marine Algae
Alaska’s Unangan (Aleut) name is Alaxsxix, which means “place the sea crashes against”; as such, it is a rich harvest site for seaweeds all along its 10,690 km coastline. Seaweeds are utilized for food, livestock fodder, and traditional medicines for Pacific Rim Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nation tribal communities. As foods, they provide a limitless resource for macro‐ and micronutrients, and are prepared by drying, toasting, fermenting, and brewing in soups (Kellogg et al. 2015). Recent research has cited the utility of seaweed extracts to significantly increase insulin sensitivity and diminish hyperglycemia (Paradis et al. 2011; Nuno et al. 2013). In partnership with the Southeast Alaska Regional Consortium and Alaska Native elders, we were able to engage in a deeper analysis of the phytoactive constituents of seaweeds and their relevant bioactivities. Extracts from six species of seaweed and one tidal plant were screened for antioxidant capacity using first the mobile biodiscovery kits (described previously) to establish “first hits,” then in both chemical and in vitro bioassays, and total phenolic content was gauged. A brown seaweed (Fucus distichus) proved to have both the highest total phenolic content (557 μg/mg extract, measured in phloroglucinol equivalents) and one of the highest radical scavenging activities (Kellogg and Lila 2013). Follow‐up work established that the phlorotannin oligomers (fucophloroethol structures with DP from 3‐18 monomer units) of F. distichus (Figure 3.3)
