background and objectives: commiphora habessinica (o.berg) engl. (burseraceae), boswellia sacra flueck (burseraceae), phoenix dactylifera l. (arecaceae), and doronicum glaciale (wulfen) nyman (asteraceae) are of ethnomedicinal importance in persian folk medicine and are widely used to treat infectious diseases. the aim of the present study was to investigate the antimicrobial properties of thes...

The resin of the Commiphora mukul tree has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for more than 2000 years to treat a variety of ailments. Studies in both animal models and humans have shown that this resin, termed gum guggul, can decrease elevated lipid levels. The stereoisomers E- and Z-guggulsterone have been identified as the active agents in this resin. Recent studies have shown that these compou...

The use of archery to hunt appears relatively late in human history. It is poorly understood but the application of poisons to arrows to increase lethality must have occurred shortly after developing bow hunting methods; these early multi-stage transitions represent cognitive shifts in human evolution. This paper is a synthesis of widely-scattered literature in anthropology, entomology, and che...