title: Millipedes as food for humans: their nutritional and possible antimalarial value-a first report.
abstract: The first record of millipedes (Diplopoda) being regularly used for food by humans (the Bobo people of Burkina Faso) is given, including information on how the millipedes are prepared. The species in question are Tymbodesmus falcatus (Karsch, 1881) and Sphenodesmus sheribongensis (Schiøtz, 1966) (Gomphodesmidae) and an unidentified species of Spirostreptidae. New information on the nutritional value of millipedes is provided; unsaturated fatty acids, calcium, and iron contents are particularly high. The millipedes' defensive secretions, hydrogen cyanide and benzoquinones, present a severe challenge for the spread of millipedes as an everyday food source. On the other hand, the possibility that benzoquinones may act as insect-repellents, as known from studies on nonhuman primates, and that sublethal cyanide ingestion may enhance human innate resistance to malaria, suggests promising ethnomedical perspectives to our findings.
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2764-8750
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Enghoff
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, lab. Agroecology and Ethnobiology, Via U. Bassi, 58/b, 35121 Padova, Italy ; Escuela de Postgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5086-370X
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Manno
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche pour la Gestion de la Biodiversité, 04 BP 0385 Cotonou, Benin.
authors.forename: Sévérin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tchibozo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical Technology of Organic Materials, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: List
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical Technology of Organic Materials, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schwarzinger
authors.affiliation: Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schoefberger
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical Technology of Organic Materials, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schwarzinger
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, lab. Agroecology and Ethnobiology, Via U. Bassi, 58/b, 35121 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Paoletti