Dietary Supplement Neutralizes Toxic Foods

a young monkey with white, black and red fur eats a leaf surrounded by trees

Biological Strategy

AskNature Team

Image: Hasin Shakur / Wikimedia Commons / GFDL - Gnu Free Document License

Protect From Chemicals

Chemicals are everywhere in the bodies of living organisms and their external environments. While most chemicals are valuable or benign, some are toxic, including those used for defense (such as the mucus that protects clownfish from an anemone’s stinging tentacles). Even naturally-occurring chemicals, such as arsenic, must be managed to reduce their impact. Some living systems have strategies to break down harmful chemicals, alter them into less toxic forms, physically prevent chemicals from harming sensitive tissues, and more. For example, some herbivorous mammals can digest toxic compounds in plants because they have a particular enzyme that helps them process poisonous plant compounds.

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Mammals

Class Mammalia (“breast”): Bats, cats, whales, horses, humans

Mammals make up less than 1% of all animals on earth, but they include some of the most well-known species. We know first-hand some of the characteristics that make mammals unique, like having hair, being able to sweat, and producing milk through mammary glands. Another critical shared feature is a set of highly-specialized teeth. Unlike sharks or alligators, for example, whose teeth are generally all the same size and shape, mammals have differently shaped teeth in different areas of the jaws to target specific foods or foraging strategies.

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The Zanzibar red colobus effectively removes toxins such as phenols from the leaves it eats by eating charcoal.

“As discovered during the late 1990s by Dr. Thomas Struhsaker and fellow researchers from North Carolina’s Duke University, the Zanzibar red colobus (Colobus kirkii) eats charcoal in the wild, making it the only primate species other than humans to do so. The reason for its daily — and very enthusiastic — charcoal intake (which it obtains by stealing charcoal from human charcoal burners) is that the substance is effective in removing harmful toxins such as phenols from the protein-rich leaves of the mango (Mangifera indica) and almond (Terminalia catappa) upon which it feeds. These substances would otherwise have a harmful effect on the functioning of the monkey’s digestive system.” (Shuker 2001:214-215)