by The chimpanzee was sick. He had diarrhea and a tapeworm – not unusual for a wild chimpanzee in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. What really got the watch research team excited was what the monkey did about it.
Soon after developing the symptoms, the male traveled with two others from the community’s home to a location in the forest with a certain type of tree. He collected some dead wood from the Alstonia boonei and he ate it. The plant has long been used in traditional medicine, and when scientists tested it, they confirmed that it had high antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. The chimp made a full recovery.
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The chimpanzee’s behavior was one of many cases observed over eight months that suggest chimpanzees may be using the forest as a natural drug store. The study, published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, was conducted by a team led by Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford and Fabien Schultz of the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, who found that chimpanzees were eating a variety of medicinal plants. effective but of little other nutritional value, often when they had a health issue such as an injury or parasite.
The findings offered strong support for “novel self-medicating behaviors in wild chimpanzees,” the researchers wrote, adding that further study of the animals’ behavior “could benefit our own species, potentially leading to the discovery of medications novel to man.”
The next area of investigation is the “most interesting plant extracts” consumed by the chimpanzees, Schultz said in an email. There are many “ifs,” he said, but in theory, “one day the knowledge of chimpanzees could save human lives.”
He was particularly interested in the potential application of the plants that go to the chimpanzees to tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria and chronic inflammatory diseases – although he warned that there is a long way between this study and any potential drug breakthrough .
The team observed two chimpanzee communities in Budongo Forest for four months each. They tracked what the great apes ate and analyzed components of 13 plant species that seemed unpalatable to chimpanzees, such as bark and resin, to see if healing effects by the materials.
“Pharmacological findings indicate that Budongo chimpanzees consume several species with strong medicinal properties,” the authors wrote.
Those who struggled the most with parasites – which the scientists discovered by testing their feces – ate plant material with the strongest antibacterial properties. Injured chimpanzees ate ferns with anti-inflammatory effects that the groups rarely ate. When all plant species were tested in a laboratory, they inhibited the bacterial growth of E. coli, and previous studies found that they had cancer-fighting or analgesic properties.
The authors noted that 11 of the 13 plant species had recorded uses in traditional medicine.
The researchers were surprised at the range of illnesses that the chimps turned to plants – and at the power of plants. “Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising,” Freymann said in an email, “because chimpanzees are incredibly intelligent and it makes perfect sense that they would know by now what plants will help them when sick or injured. “
She said the research showed it was “very likely” that the chimpanzees were eating the medicinal plants at the same time as part of their diet. “In many of these cases, the sick or injured chimps sought these resources when no other member of their group did,” she said.
The study adds to a body of research suggesting that some animals may use plants or insects to self-medicate. Our closest cousins, the apes, have often played a key role in this field, known as zoopharmacognosy.
Last month, scientists published their observations in the journal Scientific Reports of an orangutan in Indonesia applying the juice and chewed leaves of a plant known for its medicinal effects to a facial injury – which then healed without signs of infection. Two years ago, a different study of chimpanzees, in Loango National Park in Gabon, said the animals were repeatedly seen applying insects to wounds.
Isabelle Laumer, a primatologist and cognitive biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany who was the lead author of the orangutan report but was not involved in the PLOS One study, said in an interview that the new study added “really important findings.” which opened avenues for further research.
“It’s always fascinating to learn that our closest relatives exhibit behaviors that humans exhibit as well,” she said. “I think this study shows, again, the similarities we share.”
The authors of the PLOS One study called for strong conservation efforts to continue such research, and to explore the potential benefits to humans of finding plants with medicinal properties. “It is imperative that we give urgent priority to the conservation of our wild forest pharmacies as well as our primary cousins that inhabit them,” they said.
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