Insects as medicine

1. Insects as Medicine
Semester 1st
Open Elective
Bashir A. Lone

3. Insects as healing agents
• Maggot Debridement Therapy
Fly larvae as agents of antisepsis
– Sepsis (Gr. ‘sepsis’ = putrefaction)
– “poisoning caused by the absorption into the blood
of pathogenic micro-organisms”
– Lucilia sericata; L. cuprina-Maggots of these flies to
an infected chronic, non-healing wounds they
release- Lucifensins As antiseptic

4. • Discovered in the U.S. Civil War that fly-
blown wounds healed faster & cleaner.
• Caused the surgeons to investigate this
phenomenon.
• Wound Myiasis
– “an infection of the organs or tissues of
man or animals by fly larvae that, for at
least a period of time, feed upon the living
or dead tissues.”

5. • The cochineal insects contain carminic acid,
coccerin, myrestin, fat and fatty acids which
are used in the treatment of neuralgia, and
whooping cough.
• The body extract of the cocoons of the silk
moth, is used for checking gynecological
disorders and in treating leucorrhoea and
chronic diarrhea.

6. Flies Responsible
• Diptera
– family Calliphoridae - the BLOW FLIES
– family Sarcophagidae - the FLESH FLIES
– in their larval stage they feed on “meat”
• the buzzards of the insect world
– some species feed on living tissue
• be careful in your selection of species.
– The commonly found/used species
• Phormia regina - P. terraenovae & Lucillia sericata
Flesh Fly

7. Blow Flies
• Surgeons began intentionally infesting wounds
with fly larvae.
• Today:
– eggs are surface sterilized and placed on a
food source (horse meat normally)
– 2 day old larvae inoculated into wound
– larvae flushed out with saline
in 3 or 4 days and younger
larvae added as necessary.

8. Phormia regina
“And the gilded little fly
does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive!!”
Shakespeare - King Lear
Eats only dead tissue

9. Calliphoria vomitoria
Bad choice.
This species will eat
living tissue.
The working end of a
blow fly larva.

10. You may wish to avert your eyes

11. Blow Flies
• Maggot debridement therapy
– especially helpful in cases of bone infections
(osteomyelitis)
– discovered that not only did the larvae assist in
cleanup of dead tissue, but they also produced an
endogenous antibiotic
– plus they secrete ammonia & calcium carbonate
which promote healing
– A resurgent technology
• see: BIOMAGGOT.com

12. HONEY as medicine
• A long history as a mendicant
– ancient Egyptians used it as a wound dressing
– practiced to this day.
• Is is wise to do so??
–YES
– and here’s why:

13. Honey in medicine
• Three mechanisms that account for the
medicinal properties of honey
– pH
• average of 3.9 - an acid medium
– Hyperosmotic
• low moisture content dehydrates (via osmosis)
microbial life that enters honey
– Inhibine
• a term coined in the mid-1930ties to describe an
“unknown” antibiotic property of honey

14. Honey In Medicine
• A host of testimonial claims for the efficacy of honey
– Dermatological disorders (It is also applied to cure ulcers).
– Burns ; Wound healing (Chronic and post surgical wounds)
– Abrasions
– promote healthy immune systems
– improve circulation and decrease inflammation
– Improves migraine headaches
– bed wetting
– Insomnia; hyperactivity
– Royal jelly is used to treat Post menopausal symptoms
– The bee-wax is used as a base for preparation of ointments.
– Propolis (wound dressing)
– Bee Venom is used in therapy of Arthritis.

15. Insect Sutures
Soldier ants
A nice example of polymorphic caste extremism.
Army ant soldier
Major and minor worker of Eciton burchelli

16. Ant Stitches
• An ancient practice
– India; 3,000 yrs. BP
– Known also from the mid-East & So. America
• Commonly used ant genera
– Camponotus - carpenter ants
– Atta - leaf-cutter ants
– Eciton - army ants

17. Insects AS Medicine
• Blister Beetles
– source of CANTHARIDIN
• a blistering agent
• hexahydro-3,7-dimethyl-4, 4-epoxyisobenzofuran-
1, 3-dione
• (just in case you wanted to know)
• the infamous SPANISH FLY
– a putative aphrodisiac
A bit of mythology

18. Cantharidin
• A defensive chemical produced
by beetles to ward off predator
attacks
– Protein blocker (Viral infections, Cancer)
– reflex bleeding (autohemorrhization)
– dried beetles contain up to 1% cantharidin by weight
– toxic, blistering agent
• 30 mg a fatal dose for humans
– Recommended by such worthies as
• Hippocrates & Galen ‘…to stimulate certain internal
organs.’
Blister Beetles

19. The real Spanish Fly
• Order Coleoptera
• Family Meloidae
• G.& s. Lytta vesicatoria
• 2,000 species of blister beetles
– 68 species in the genus Lytta
– Many are native to the countries surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea.
[note: lytta = rage (Gr.): vesica = blister (L.)]

20. Try “The Centipede Cleanse”
 Traditional Asian practitioners associate powdered
centipede remedies with kidney and liver functions, and
laboratory studies confirm their surmises.
 Properly formulated centipede supplements do appear to
stimulate healthy functions in patients’ kidneys and livers.
• detoxification
• dissipate toxins
• wash away free radicals

21. Grasshoppers Have Potential
Several African cultures use poultices
made from ground grasshoppers as pain
relievers, especially for migraines.
Some neurologists hypothesize that
grasshopper toxins stimulate the human
central nervous system and
subsequently dilate blood vessels
increasing circulation.
Given blood vessel constriction triggers
migraines, grasshoppers’ therapeutic
benefits seem perfectly logical.

22. Insects as aphrodisiacs
• 2002 Review article by Prischmann & Sheppard
24 insect families with “proven” efficacy by various species
(beetles, bugs, bees, wasps, ants moths, et alia.
• Used as general aphrodisiacs
• “stimulants” [entomological Viagra], potency
enhancements.
• A history as old a Hippocrates [the father of medicine]
and Galen {2nd century Greek}
• It still sells today!

23. Bee & Wasp Venoms
• Desensitization of humans hypersensitive to
Hymenopteran venoms
• Used in controlled, serial dosages
– 3 to six months
– begins with the injection of 1/200th of the venom
of one bee or wasp
– ends with an injection of equivalent venom of
two bees or wasps
• First licensed by the FDA in 1976
• Fully licensed in 1980

24. Bee Venom
• Vast anecdotal base for help (or “cure) for:
– Arthritis
– Bursitis
– M.S.
• NIH-OAM funded an M.S.
study in 1998
• Bee venom Therapy very popular in the world of
• alternative medicine.

25. Insects AS Medicine
• “Mea culpa est ignorami”
• Insects in pharmacopoeia (drug ref. Books)
– Two basic principles observed
• Ingredients as repulsive as possible
• insect used must bear some resemblance of the
complaint or suffering.
• Insects used in the symbolic transfer of disease
• ancient dogma: “similia smilibus curentur”
• also known as the Doctrine of Signatures or
• Sympathetic Medicines - Law of Similarity

26. Earwigs for Deafness
• Elizabethan England
• Dried & powdered earwigs mixed with
rabbit urine & poured into the ears twice
daily.
• Earwigs
– Order DERMAPTERA (“skin” wing)
– small group of nocturnal scavengers that do
NOT crawl into human ears.

27. The European Earwig
“Mother & Child(s)”
Post-natal care,
& rather rare in the
insect world.
Order DERMAPTERA

28. Cockroach Soup
Jazz great Louie Armstrong related that
his mother would often feed him cockroach
soup at times of childhood illness.

29. Bed Bug Broth
• Elizabethan England (again)
– as a cure for Malaria

30. Insects as medicine
• Grasshoppers to stop the fits(uncontrolled
electric disturbance in the brain which causes changes in behavior or
feelings and unconsciousness also epilepsy).
– NY-late 19th century
• Cockroaches for measles
– place the insect in a jar or under a thimble and
allow it to die - thereby “transferring” the
disease from human to bug.
• Singing insects for ear & throat problems
– Europe during the Middle Ages

31. Insects as medicine
• For baldness
– the use of hairy insects
– Pliny in HISTORIA NATURALIS
• “The heads of flies, applied fresh to the bald place
is a convenient medicine for the said infirmity &
defect.”
– 1743: English Medical Dictionary
• “Powdered bees contribute to the growth of hair”

32. Spiders as medicine
• Tarantism
– a nervous disorder characterized by hysteria & a
mania for dancing
– a form of anxiety displacement
– believed to be caused by spider bites
• First observed in the Italian town of TARANTO
in the 16th & 17th centuries
– from which the name Tarantula is derived
– from which the folk dance “Tarantella” is derived

33. Recommended cure for Tarantism was to eat live spiders!!!
YUMMY!!!
Watch the Tarantella! (Dance)

34. South America
• Theraphosa blondi,
• The Goliath Bird-eater
• the largest spider in the world
• To cook, it must be roasted in fire to
“burn off the toxic hairs”
• Roasted for roughly seven minutes,
and then cracked open like crabs
• Abdomen has actual “meat” in it
• Supposedly tastes like smoked crab

35. Forensic Entomology
• Insects – common flies, bluebottles etc., lay
eggs which hatch into maggots
• Eggs deposited in body orifices
• Flies are attracted to bleeding injuries
• Life cycle of fly used to help determine the
time of death
• Different species of insects used to determine
the time of death

36. Putrefaction
• Begins 4 – 10 days after
death
• Blowfly eggs have
hatched, maggots are in
orifices
• Histerid beetles appear
under body (if on land)
Hister

37. Butyric Formation
• 10 – 25 days after
death
• Maggots have begun to
leave body, pupate in
soil
• Carrion Beetles & Skin
Beetles become the
dominant necrophage.
About 15 days post mortem.
Note the saponification or
adipocere formation on the
shoulder and arm.
Nicrophorus vespillo

38. Thank You