A global analysis of the evolutionary drivers of wild mammals use in traditional medicine

Ingredients derived from wild mammals are widely used in traditional remedies. Large datasets of trait, range, and phylogeny are also available for mammals. Therefore, this is an ideal group to explore the ecological (e.g., range size, body mass) and evolutionary (i.e., shared ancestry) drivers of the use of animal-derived products in traditional medicine. Here, we provide a global analysis of the drivers of the use of wild mammals in traditional medicine<b>, </b>testing how life-history traits explain pattern in present-day use of these animals. We compiled data from the primary literature about folk remedies based on mammals by a literature search using ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Then, we used modern phylogenetic comparative methods to estimate phylogenetic signal in the diseases in which animal parts are used for, and also test if geographic range and body size affected the use. Also, we tested if species more used are also those more threatened by extinction. Our results show that 521 mammal species are used as source for products to treat 371 diseases. We found support for the hypothesis that phylogenetic relatedness determines the use of mammal-derived remedies in traditional medicines. Specifically, we confirm our hypotheses that closely-related species are more versatile and are used to treat similar diseases. Furthermore, we demonstrated that mammals with larger body size are more versatile and are used to treat more diseases. As many as 209 species in our database are listed in some threat category, suggesting that overexploitation for medicinal uses can be an overlooked source of threat and should ideally be considered in mammal species conservation assessments. By showing that phylogenetic relatedness affects species use as remedy in traditional medicine, we urge future studies to evaluate the negative effects of overexploitation of animals for medical purposes, because it can cause nonrandom extinction patterns in the mammalian tree of life.<b></b>

野生哺乳动物源成分在传统疗法中应用广泛。目前已公开大量关于哺乳动物的性状、分布范围与系统发育的大型数据集。因此，哺乳动物是探究传统医药中动物源制品使用的生态（如分布范围大小、体质量）与进化（即共同祖先）驱动因素的理想类群。本研究针对传统医药中野生哺乳动物的使用驱动因素开展全球尺度分析，探究生活史性状如何解释当前这类动物的使用模式。我们通过ISI Web of Knowledge、Scopus与Google Scholar进行文献检索，收集了基于哺乳动物的民间疗法相关原始文献数据。随后，我们采用现代系统发育比较方法，估算了入药动物部位所用于治疗的疾病的系统发育信号，并检验了地理分布范围与体质量是否会影响该类动物的入药情况。此外，我们还检验了被更频繁入药的物种是否同时面临更高的灭绝威胁。本研究结果显示，共有521种哺乳动物被用作药物原料，可用于治疗371种疾病。我们的结果支持"系统发育亲缘关系决定了传统医药中哺乳动物源疗法的使用"这一假说。具体而言，我们验证了本研究提出的假说：亲缘关系越近的物种，其入药用途越广泛，且可用于治疗相似疾病。此外，我们还证实，体质量更大的哺乳动物入药用途更广泛，可治疗的疾病种类更多。本数据库中共有多达209个物种被列入某一濒危等级，这表明为获取药用原料而过度开发利用可能是一个被忽视的威胁来源，在哺乳动物物种保护评估中应将其纳入考量。鉴于系统发育亲缘关系会影响物种在传统医药中的使用情况，我们呼吁未来的研究应评估为医疗目的过度捕猎动物所带来的负面影响——这类过度开发利用可能会在哺乳动物系统发育树中引发非随机的灭绝模式。