Humans started drinking alcohol 10m years ago

Scientists have discovered a gene mutation that suggests humans first developed a taste for alcohol more than 10 million years ago.

Our ancestors may have first started consuming alcohol more than 10 million years ago

Neotholic farmers were thought to have been the first people to brew alcohol 9,000 years ago, when northern Chinese villages discovered fruit and honey could be fermented into liquor.

However, now scientists believe that when primates moved from the trees and started walking on two feet they began eating squashed, fermented fruit lying on the ground and gradually their bodies adapted to process the ethanol, as reported by The Telegraph.

Conducted at Santa Fe College, US, researchers studied the gene ADH4, which creates an enzyme in the body that breaks down alcohol.

The hypothesis of the study stated ADH4 would not present itself until the first alcohol was produced by early farmers, but it actually appeared 10 millon years beforehand at the end of the Miocene epoch.

“This transition implies the genomes of modern human, chimpanzee and gorilla began adapting at least 10 million years ago to dietary ethanol present in fermenting fruit,” said professor Matthew Carrigan.

“The conclusion contrasts with the relatively short amount of time – about 9,000 year – since fermentative technology enabled humans to consume beverages with higher ethanol content than fruit fermenting in the wild.

“Our ape ancestors gained a digestive enzyme capable of metabolizing ethanol near the time they began using the forest floor about 10 million years ago.

“Because fruit collected from the forest floor is expected to contain higher concentrations of fermenting yeast and ethanol than similar fruits hanging on trees this transition may also be the first time our ancestors were exposed to – and adapted to – substantial amounts of dietary ethanol.”

The new information could explain why orang-utans are still unable to process alcohol, yet humans, chimps and gorillas can.