Abstract
Knowledge about therapy with insects in Mongolian traditional medicine is less studied even they have been used broadly since ancient time. Several orthodox practitioners have surveyed the therapeutic potentials of defensive agents in Blaps femoralis known as “stink beetle” in the past. We present results about content of defensive secretion and surface lipids, both a biologically active principle in insect, used in traditional Mongolian medicine. A combination of gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy was used for the identification of several p-benzoquinone derivatives accompanied by straight chain hydrocarbons and fatty acids. None of these compounds has been reported previously from this species. An IR imaging of insect cuticle surface shows the possibility for the analytical characterization of fatty acids in tissue at high lateral resolution of few microns.
Highlights
Insects and their substances have been used as medicinal resources by different cultures since ancient time because of chemical compounds – e.g. pheromones, defensive sprays, venoms and toxins, which were sequestered from plants or prey and later concentrated or transformed for their own use [1, 2]
Boland: Numerous insect originated materia medica (Fig. 1) in Mongolian traditional medicine contribute this source of therapeutics and variety of ancient medical treatises by local authors as well as translations of renowned Ayurvedic medical books about animals as medicine exist [3]
According to traditional prescription methods described in [3], either two or three insect must be immersed in alcohol and/or in combination with different other substances before they discharge their defensive secretion and not touching surface lipids, the most active principles in it
Summary
Insects and their substances have been used as medicinal resources by different cultures since ancient time because of chemical compounds – e.g. pheromones, defensive sprays, venoms and toxins, which were sequestered from plants or prey and later concentrated or transformed for their own use [1, 2].D. Insects and their substances have been used as medicinal resources by different cultures since ancient time because of chemical compounds – e.g. pheromones, defensive sprays, venoms and toxins, which were sequestered from plants or prey and later concentrated or transformed for their own use [1, 2]. An external cuticle of insect is covered with a thin layer of lipids in order to prevent the loss of body water, invasion of pathogenic micro organisms and irradiation by UV-light and to contain hydrocarbons with a role in chemical communication.
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