SHARING INFORMATION
Tatoosh
tatoosh at spiritone.com
Fri Jun 13 11:17:45 EDT 1997
Greetings
Would you be willing to share your story of what butterflies mean to
you? The subject matter may
be based on science, or perhaps mystery, or even of spiritual
significance.
What I am seeking is information on butterflies that can be used in the
production of a video.
There seems to be an interesting thread of mystery surrounding
butterflies, which I would like to
make available in story form. I have recently discovered that
butterflies not only hold the key to
the balance of nature, but also will lead us to medicinal properties in
host plants.
A small portion of what I have found is:
1. The Mayan pyramids are thought by some to contain the mystery of
nature. Legend has
it the statues guard the wisdom of the pyramids. Did you know the
breast plate of the
statue is actually a butterfly?
2. The father of modern medicine was a student of the Asclepian
movement.
3. Host plants for butterflies contain the major chemicals associated
with modern
pharmaceutical drugs and ancient herbal remedies.
For example, according to Dr. S.K. Jain, FNA, Director, Institute of
Ethnobiology and
Dr. (Ms) Sneh Lata, Researcher, Institute of Ethnobiology, c/o National
Botanical
Research Institute, Lucknow-226001 India, that out of 45,000 plants,
2532 have known
medicinal properties. Of those Asclepias is known as the cardiotonic.
While meeting with Dr. Payton, Chair of the chemistry department of
Portland State
University, he saw for himself the chemicals present in Asclepias
syriaca.
Could butterflies lead us to new historic medical cures? The chemical
breakdown for
Asclepias syriaca can be found as E.C.3.4.22.7 in the Enzyme Structures
Database. You
will find chemicals that are known to cure specific diseases.
More research and testing on this genus can and should be done. Dr.
Roy, staff scientist
with Oregon Health Science University, C.R.O.E.T. Research Facility,
with impeccable
credentials, who has worked with Dr. Jain and Dr. Lata in the past
would be willing to
study the Asclepias genus on a molecular scale. Would you be
interested in where his
findings will lead?
You are probably wondering what all this has to do with butterflies, the
ambassador to the insect
world. If you will share something of importance in respect to
butterflies, you will be supplying
needed data that will help us complete the story.
If you have specialized in a particular aspect of this ambassador,
please submit your findings so
they can be shared with others.
Also, if you have a story that touches the spiritual or mysterious, I
would like to hear it.
Thanks,
Hans Schnauber
Physionom Researcher
Chair, National Butterfly Release
hans7 at i-link-2.net
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