Hardy Karen
Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Catalonia Spain.
Departament de Prehistòria, Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Catalonia Spain.
Rev Bras Farmacogn. 2021;31(1):1-15. doi: 10.1007/s43450-020-00107-4. Epub 2020 Oct 9.
Modern human need for medicines is so extensive that it is thought to be a deep evolutionary behavior. There is abundant evidence from our Paleolithic and later prehistoric past, of survival after periodontal disease, traumas, and invasive medical treatments including trepanations and amputations, suggesting a detailed, applied knowledge of medicinal plant secondary compounds. Direct archeological evidence for use of plants in the Paleolithic is rare, but evidence is growing. An evolutionary context for early human use of medicinal plants is provided by the broad evidence for animal self-medication, in particular, of non-human primates. During the later Paleolithic, there is evidence for the use of poisonous and psychotropic plants, suggesting that Paleolithic humans built on and expanded their knowledge and use of plant secondary compounds.
现代人对药物的需求极为广泛，以至于被认为是一种深刻的进化行为。从旧石器时代及之后的史前时期有大量证据表明，人们在患牙周病、遭受创伤以及接受包括颅骨钻孔术和截肢术在内的侵入性医疗治疗后仍存活下来，这表明当时人们对药用植物次生化合物有详细的应用知识。旧石器时代使用植物的直接考古证据很少，但此类证据正在增加。广泛的动物自我用药证据，特别是非人类灵长类动物的证据，为早期人类使用药用植物提供了一个进化背景。在旧石器时代晚期，有使用有毒和精神性植物的证据，这表明旧石器时代的人类在其对植物次生化合物的知识和使用基础上进行了拓展。
