Use By Humans
The wood is soft, but it is used for construction purposes where durability is not important.
Ficus insipida is used by wajacas (shamans) of the Craós (Krahós, Krahô) tribe in Brazil as a memory enhancer. Its latex is also employed in South American folk medicine as the anthelmintic called ojé, but as it is toxic it must be used with care.
Maya codices (singular codex) are folding books stemming from the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, written in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark cloth, Amatl, made from the inner bark of certain trees, the main being the wild fig tree or Amate (Ficus glabrata; a synonym of the Ficus insipida).
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Famous quotes containing the word humans:
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)