Insects in Medicine! (Entomotherapy)

Insects for Fun!

This week we are looking at the origins and fascinating uses of insects in Medicine from an ethnic and modern approach. There are some incredibly powerful uses for insects and I think we are only getting started.

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Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of Insects for Fun where every Tuesday we dive into something new and interesting in the world of Entomology. Today we’re touching upon something many of us might know very little about.. Entomotherapy…

Okay so I think everyone here understands what therapy is, and if you add entomo into the mix then it of course must involve insects and I don’t know if you know but, using insects and insect extracts for medicinal purposes has been a long tradition for humankind, much like the practice of eating insects which we covered way back in Episode 2.

When did it all begin? Well, according to records in Egypt the use of insects for healing was established back in 1600 BCE which is the middle of the Bronze age which is not that far from the stone age meaning civilization was incredibly simple at the time. There are also records of people in China using the Chinese silkmoth Bombyx Mori for medicinal purposes that date back at least 3,000 years. Ancient Romans and Greeks were also using insects to treat medical issues. For example, Pliny the Elder who was a roman Author and Naturalist in the first century of the common era wrote about the usage of insects for severe illness and to treat wounded soldiers in the roman empire. One such remedy was the application of honey on wool for sores and wounds. This actually makes sense because honey has antibacterial properties.

On the other hand, there was also a mentality at the time that likes would cure likes. For example, to cure baldness you would use something that has little to no hair, like a fly for example and sure enough people had various fly remedies for someone that was bald or balding including but not limited to rubbing crushed flies on your head to rubbing the ashes of burnt flies or even flies with honey and this was supposed to be done for around 10 days… Another great example would be to use crickets for sore throats or earaches because crickets sing on repeat and must have properties to help restore someone's throat or even their ears because all that stuff is connected right?

But aside from the old usages based on flawed logic we do have proper uses for insects in medical practices both from a traditional and modern approach so let's start taking a look at those now.

First on our list would be the use of Honeybees. These insects have been used for thousands of years for treating various ailments (as we saw earlier in an example from pliny the elder) , and there is an entire subcategory for bee related therapies called apitherapy.

Some of the common remedies used by bee related products include: Arthritis pain, wounds, general pain from bruises, reduce gingivitis and plaque etc. There are even some studies revealing that the chemical makeup of bee venom can actually help suppress HIV.

That’s a lot to unpack and I’m gonna do my best to break it down for you starting with the use of Bee venom for arthritis pain. Bee venom therapy, abbreviated as BVT, has been around for a long long time, we’re talking ancient Greece kind of time, and for a good reason. Bee venom contains a very very long list of beneficial peptides, amines, enzymes and other good stuff which promote blood circulation, decrease inflammation and even reduce pain. In fact, one study found that the use of Bee Venom for arthritis pain can not only help reduce the need for other more traditional medications, but it also reduces the risk for relapse! But before you go outside and try to get stung you should know there are other methods for administration, like an FDA-approved shot from a medical professional.

Bee venom along with its main component mellitin actually has inhibiting effects on cancer cell growth for prostate cancer as well as anti-tumor growth properties for breast cancer cells, cells in the liver, lung, melanoma, and even cancerous cells in the blood. But we still have a ways to go before we see bee venom in the treatment for cancers because these properties have yet to be harnessed for targeting specific cancer cells.

Now let’s look at some other insects from a medical perspective. On the topic of cancer (yikes) we have another insect that actually acts like a drug dog but specifically for finding cancerous cells! This would be the Fruit fly. Yup, these tiny annoying flies can actually sense cancer cells with their antennae and they’re kind of really good at it, being able to detect cancer cells in very early onset and they’ve even been found to differentiate between 5 different types of breast cancer cells. It’s even more wild though, because as it turns out these flies are very easy to modify genetically, and people have actually engineered these flies to glow different colors upon sensing cancer cells! That’s insane.

Moving along on the fly train let's now look at what maggots can do for us, and just so we are all on the same page, a maggot is the term used for fly larvae.

Okay, let's get into it.

Maggots have been used in the medical world for a long time, and there is actually a term specifically for this kind of treatment called maggot debridement therapy or MDT. This kind of therapy was found to be extremely beneficial during WW1 when having open wounds and rotting flesh was not uncommon on the battlefront. In fact, they are still approved for use to this day in many countries around the world and here’s why!

Maggots feed on decaying matter, and in this case that would be necrotic skin tissue, and they have no interest in feeding on anything else when it comes to the human body. They also can eat and kill bacteria like E. coli and have other antimicrobial properties which ward off bacterial infections. They are also proven to reduce inflammation of wounds and even improve wound healing by promoting the production of special cells in our bodies called microvascular endothelial cells! Maggots actually have multiple secretions which are antibacterial and antifungal, and the use of maggots for the treatment in antibiotic-resistant wounds is making a comeback as we enter a time when people are beginning to become resistant to certain antibiotic medicines.

Last on our list today will be ants! Similar to bees, these insects have a lot of beneficial properties and they have been used in treatments for Asthma, Cancer, Arthritis, and other infections in both modern and ethnic medicine!

This is because ant venom is similar to bee venom, and contains a bunch of handy antimicrobial agents and peptides.

Not all ants have what it takes to be a form of treatment or aid in the medical world, but there are many ant species out there and we are only just really starting to dive into discovering what is available to us. Many people have been using ants as treatment purely from passed down knowledge, especially in ethnopharmacology and some examples for that would be the use of leaf cutter ants in Brazil to treat sore throats, ease asthma, help tuberculosis, and help ease tendinitis.

Other examples would be the use of giant black ants and leaf cutter ants as biodegradable and antibacterial sutures for internal surgeries in India. It’s pretty smart actually and I know wilderness explorers also use this tactic for stitching wounds when medical facilities aren’t available. This might sound archaic and questionable to some or all of you but the fact remains these ants have extraordinary healing properties and scientists and medical professionals today are now really looking into and using extracts from various ant species in the remedies for modern medical issues.