New research from China has suggested that sparrows use the leaves of a specific tree to line their nests and protect their young from parasites, suggesting a primitive form of preventive medicine use.

A team led by Kanshao Yang, an ecologist at Hainan Normal University, found that wine sparrows in China use wormwood leaves to line their nests to protect their offspring from parasites that may stunt their growth.

Sparrows start lining their nests with special leaves at the same time locals hang wormwood to celebrate the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, with anti-parasite benefits suspected of playing at least some role in human tradition.

"The belief that this behavior provides protection against ill health is supported by the prescription of anti-parasite compounds found in wormwood. It has been suggested that incorporating fresh wormwood leaves into nests may serve a similar function to finches," Yang says.

To test their hypothesis, Yang and his team examined 48 pairs of nest boxes, some with five grams of wormwood inside, and the other with five grams of bamboo.

Once the Khmer finches filled the nests, the researchers began adding small increments of wormwood or bamboo each day (while other nests received no additional treatment as a control).

They then weighed the amount of wormwood that the finches had brought to the nest each day, and found that the birds preferred locations near the abundant supplies of wormwood, which they used to fortify the lining in their nests daily and to increase medical immunizations.

"Our results indicate that sparrows, like humans, use wormwood as a preventive herbal remedy to protect their offspring from ill health," said ecologist William Finney, from Griffith University in Australia.

The use of primitive forms of medicines was observed in the animal kingdom before, as pregnant elephants in Kenya were reported to eat a certain plant to induce childbirth, while other organisms were observed using medicinal plants for health and recreational reasons.

Source: RT

By:Nadeemy Haded