The beers, wines and distilled spirits that have accompanied human beings in their happiest or darkest moments are based on a fundamental compound called ethanol. Also known as ethyl alcohol, ethanol is not an invention of humanity like stimulants such as ecstasy or methamphetamines. Ethanol was discovered and arises from the fermentation that yeasts and bacteria produce in sugars from fruits and cereals.
Humans identified this substance and encountered its side effects probably by accident. At the same time, other animals that consume foods rich in sugar have also experienced the consequences of ethyl alcohol. In the field of biology, there is serious doubt about the frequency with which episodes of animals getting drunk on the ethanol in their food occur and whether they do it on purpose.
A recent study published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution claims that non-human episodes of ethanol consumption are more common and less accidental than environmentalists might think. The idea we currently have about the use of ethanol has an anthropocentric bias which does not take into account the proportion of foods that produce it, the time it has been appearing through fermentation in the fruits of the Earth and the adaptations of the animals that usually ingest it.
How big is the hidden animal party?
There are currently 357,000 species of vascular plants and 325,000 species of flowering plants that produce easily fermentable sugars. Meanwhile, ethanol appeared in abundance in nature about 100 million years ago, the report notes. In contrast, the modern human species emerged just 200,000 years ago, according to the best available evidence. Humans can efficiently process ethyl alcohol thanks to the liver and special enzymes. At the same time, there are records of apes and shrews that usually live in trees that have a high tolerance to ethanol due to an adaptation mechanism.
A fermented fruit can reach up to 2% alcohol volume, although there is data in Central America where the proportion shoots up to 10%. High levels of ethanol are also synonymous with concentrated sources of usable calories. The text points out that the substance is found frequently enough in the world and presents substantial nutritional benefits to favor mechanisms that allow its consumption in multiple lineages of animals.
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