Dilong: Food for Thought and Medicine

ABSTRACTEarthworms have several names in different countries (In Chinese: 地龍 dì lóng, Japanese: Mimizu, Korean: Jireongi, Spanish: Lombriz de tierra, French: Ver de terre, German: Regenwurm, Italian: Lombrico, Swedish: Daggmask, Portuguese: Minhoca). They have long been used as a food source as well as treatments of various ailments. Many alternative and traditional disciplines of medicine, such as those in China, Japan, and Korea, developed medicinal uses of dilong from an initial utilization as nutrition. Increased curiosity in the potential medicinal properties of dilong has come to fruition through bioprospecting and evidence based research. This increased questioning and searching spawned first from a growing knowledge base about the earthworm's innate immune system. Their importance in understanding the evolution of the innate immune system has long been overlooked because of the ecological importance in soil preservation, earthworm immune systems, being full of leukocytes and humoral products, offer significant advantages when used as medicines. Earthworms offer an unanticipated slew of potential health benefits without common drawbacks that come with other biological, alternative forms of medicine such as cost, ethical and pathological concerns of animal testing.