Entomo-medicine: A way to remedy the human disease

Introduction

 

Insect used in the preparation of different medicine or insect itself used as medicine to treat different diseases is known as entomo-medicine. Human beings have been using insect and their products for therapeutic purposes since their civilization. The immunological, analgesic, antibacterial, diuretic, anaesthetic and anti-rheumatic property in the bodies of insects is now well recognized throughout the world; however, the immense scope for its exploration remains untapped. At present, insect-based medicines are gradually on the rise and gaining popularity and relevance. The use of insects in folk medicine has been particularly common in China and the State of Bahia in Brazil but is also present in many other counties including Mexico, India, Africa and South Korea. An estimated 300 insect species are used to produce 1700 traditional Chinese medicines while 42 species have been used in Bahian Folk Medicine). The chemicals generated by insects for self-defense can be used as medicinal drugs of enormous potential. Recently, this fact has been recognized by several companies set up to exploit natural products from insects utilizing modern molecular and biochemical techniques (Ratcliffe et al., 2011). The search for new pharmaceuticals from naturally occurring biological material has been guided by ethnobiological data (Blakeney, 1999). The investigation of folk medicine has also proven a valuable tool in the developing art of bioprospecting for pharmaceutical compounds (Kunin and Lawton, 1996). Insects, thus, represent an inexhaustible source for pharmaceutical substances of the future.

 

Traditional Uses of Insects Around the World

 

Honey bees and wasps

 

Honey bee and wasp venom are used for cancer and all sorts of infections tuberculosis, flu and colds. Honey products for treating wounds and infections, bee sting therapy or apitherapy treats illnesses from arthritis to cancer in many countries. Bee venom contains a variety of peptides including melittin, apamin, ado lapin, the mast cell degranulating peptide, enzymes (phospolipase-A2), and amines like histamine and epinephrine and nonpeptide components. In some state of North East India mainly in Nagaland, honeybee venom is used to treat joint pain (Moran, 1999).

 

Horsefly and mosquito

 

Horseflies, and mosquitoes inject multiple bioactive compounds into their prey. These insects have been used by practitioners of Eastern Medicine for hundreds of years to prevent blood clot formation or thrombosis. Heparin present in mosquito is used as anticoagulant. Female mosquitoes contained higher concentrations of heparin than male mosquitoes. On average, the level of heparin was higher in blood-fed female mosquitoes than in non-blood-fed female mosquitoes.

 

Silk worm

 

Silkworms are used for detoxification and treating bacterial infections causing sore eyes and swollen throat. Bombyx mori larvae have been used as bioreactors to express high levels of antioxidant. Silk-based nanoparticles containing curcumin (termeric) have been shown to have potential for treating breast cancers in vivo (Numata and Kaplan, 2010) Gel films have been made from sericin and successfully tested as wound dressings.

 

Bug

 

The main electrolytes in the hemolymph of Shield bug are sodium and chloride ions. Sodium plays an important role in regulating water balance in the human body. The ancients prescribed them for bladder and urinary complaints.

 

The oil of stinkbugs was applied in treating tubercular diseases, kidney, liver and stomach ailments. The Mexican medical doctor Crisenzia Rodriguez Nieves treats goitres with this bug because they are rich in iodine.

 

Mealybugs ointment is used to treat muscular pain, itching, scars. It alleviates the effects of poisonous mushrooms and other fungi, diarrhoea and cleans the teeth Bed bugs are used in homoeopathy to cure the pain of the left ovary. It is also used for quartan fever or malaria.

 

Blow fly

 

Blow fly larvae are used to treat chronic ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers, which is commonly known as maggot therapy. In this treatment life, disinfected maggots are introduced into non-healing skin and soft-tissue wounds of a human or other animal to clean out the necrotic (dead) tissue within a wound (debridement), and disinfection.

 

Termites

 

Different species of termite is used to treat child malnutrition, wound healing. A study from 1853 found that people living in the African nation of Zambia used termites to treat child malnutrition.  It is used as a new weapon against bacterial resistance to antibiotics and heart pains (Mbata, 1991). One particular researcher even concluded that the Nasutitermes corniger variety of termites offered the best form of natural antimicrobial therapy.

 

Cockroach

 

Ground cockroach has been used to treat wounds and even as an ingredient in toothpaste. Brain of cockroach can kill toxic stain of E. coli and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

 

Table1: Cockroach as folk medicines and magical resources in different

human cultures (Ratcliffe, 1990)

 

 

S. No.	Taxon	English or local name	Malady treated
1.	BLATTODEA
2.	Eupolyphaga sinensis Walker	Cockroach	Ear pain, Whooping cough, boils, dropsy, wart, ulcers, Stimulate lactation, Boil, Neurological disorder, Whooping cough
3.	Periplaneta americana (L.,1758)	Cockroach	Difficulty urinating, kidney stone, asthma
4.	Polyphaga plancyi Bol.	Cockroach	Regulating menstruation

 

 

Head louse

 

In Spain, head lice are considered a therapeutic resource for the treatment of jaundice.

 

Table 2: Spanish traditional remedies for jaundice based on the ingestion of

head lice (Meyer Rochow et.al., 2013)

 

S. No.	Method of preparation and dosage
1.	9 lice are put into the patient’s lunch over 9 days without his/her knowledge. They can be put into soup, omelettes or chocolate
2.	The patient was administered 3 crushed lice dissolved in “aguardiente” (liqueur)
3.	Put 5 live lice, taken from a clean and disease-free head, in the heart of an apple or a piece of bread and eat them. If 5 is not enough, the next time 7 lice are used
4.	Drink water in which lice had been cooked
5.	Some people gave children a drink made of white wine with lice, cinnamon and sugar
6.	It is recommended to take 9 lice mixed in milk or chocolate

 

 

Grasshopper

The hind legs of grasshoppers were crushed and mixed with water, then drunk as an influential diuretic to treat kidney diseases. The mixture, which is said to have refreshing properties, reduces swelling, rural people in the State of Oaxaca today use grasshoppers to treat certain intestinal disorders. Grasshopper is also used to treat violent headaches: the healer crushes the dry grasshoppers and ashes, mixes the ashes of the grasshopper with a little organic salt, and makes incisions on the nape and front of the patient.

 

Blister beetle

 

Blister beetle is used to treat cancer cells. It produces cantharidin, a defensive secretion which is synthesised by some coleopteran species belonging to the Meloidae, in which occurs in the haemolymph and other tissues. Those beetles producing cantharidin are often termed “blister beetles” as cantharidin is a toxic terpenoid, heptane-2,3-dicarboxylic acid anhydride. In China it is used for the treatment of cancer for over 2000 years. Cantharidin or its derivatives have been shown to kill a variety of tumour cells in vitro as well as in animal models in vivo including hepatomas, leukaemia, breast cancer, melanoma, bladder and gall bladder carcinomas, colorectal carcinoma, and pancreatic cancer (Li et al., 2010).

 

CONCLUSION

 

Insect-based medicine has had a long record in folklore and is coming under increasing awareness and analysis for amalgamation into evidence-based medicine. Insect-based products that purify arthropod-derived substances with conventional skill have recently been developed and may yield further benefits. The success of insects in drug discovery is essentially related to their complex chemical property, to their accessibility in various species in nature, to the existence of high-technology methods which are available, essentially for pharmaceutical companies and research centres. Moreover, insects and their products have been and will be, important sources of new pharmaceutical compounds.

 

REFERENCES

 

Blakeney M. 1999. What is traditional knowledge? Why should it be protected? Who should protect it? For whom?: Understanding the value chain. UNESCOWIPO/ IPTK/RT/99/3.

 

Kunin,W.E., and Lawton, J.H. 1996. Does biodiversity matter? Evaluating the case for conserving species. In Gaston, K. J. (ed.), Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Differences, Blackwell Science, Oxford, pp. 283–308.

 

Li W., Li X., Chen Z. 2010. Cantharidin, a potent and selective PP2A inhibitor, induces an oxidative stress-independent Cancer Sci growth inhibition of pancreatic cancer cells through G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. 101, 1226-1233.

 

Mbata, Keith J. 1991. Traditional uses of arthropods in Zambia: II. Medicinal and miscellaneous uses. The Food Insects Newsletter 12(2):1–7.

 

Meyer-Rochow V.B., Chakravorty Jharna 2013. Notes on entomophagy and entomotherapy            generally and information on the situation in India in particular. Applied Entomology     and Zoology .DOI: 10.1007/s13355-013-0171-9

Moran, P.C. 1999. The use of honey in the treatment of wounds. J. Wound Care 8.

 

Numata, K., Kaplan, D.L. 2010. Silk-based delivery systems of bioactive molecules. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 62, 1497-1508.

 

Ratcliffe N. A., Mello C.B., Garcia E.S., Butt T.M., Azambuja P. 2011. Insect natural products and processes: New treatments for human disease. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 41: 747-769.

 

Ratcliffe, Brett C. 1990. The significance of scarab beetles in the ethnoentomology of non-industrial indigenous peoples. In the Proceedings of the 1st International Congress of Ethnobiology  2, pp. 159–185. Museu Paraense Emı´lio Go¨eldi, Bele´m.