New & Interesting
Abstract of Obesity: Glycemia, insulinemia and thrifty genotype aggravated by transformation of diet in the Fijians. General Practitioner Volume 15 Number 4 2007.

Huan Hosei has found a list of departed persons of Hatohobei, Merir, Pulo Anna, and Sonsorol buried in the Sacred Heart Cemetery at the Catholic Mission in Koror. The list gives grave number, name of the departed, surviving relatives, and the place of origin of the departed.

Interested in taro, its role in Hawaiian culture, and the controversy over new patents? Take a look at this discussion.

News about an invasive plant found in Tobi, Sonsorol, and other parts of Palau so far. I don't know the Tobian name but it is ulo in Chuukese and false eranthemum in English.

Aunchalee Loscalzo has posted some of her research data on betel chewing in Echang. And these articles by Roger Sullivan and others on betel nut and mental health disorders are very interesting—

• Psychotropic substance seeking: evoutionary pathology or adaptation?  R.J. Sullivan, E.H. Hagen. 2002. Addiction, 97:4, 389-400
• The effects of chewing betel nut (Areca catechu) on the symptoms of people with schizophrenia in Palau, Micronesia.  R.J. Sullivan, J.S. Allen, C. Otto, J. Tiobech, K. Nero. 2000. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 177: 174-178.
• Social deficits associated with schizophrenia defined in terms of interpersonal Machiavellianism.  R.J. Sullivan, J.S. Allen. 1999. Acta Psychiatric Scandinavica, 99: 148-154.

Fourteen Medicinal Recipes from Tobi (Peter W. Black, 1968), notes that hachereng or Indian pennywort (Centella asiatic (L.) Urg.) is used for scabies, hubeuhihichi.

See these abstracts from the Journal of Ethnopharmacology for other uses of hachereng—

• Cytotoxic and anti-tumour properties of certain taxa of Umbelliferae with special reference to Centella asiatica (L.) Urban
• Effect of different extracts of Centella asiatica on cognition and markers of oxidative stress in rats.
• In vitro and in vivo wound healing activity of asiaticoside isolated from Centella asiatica.
  
  

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Updated: August 22, 2020