A new study by the University of Oxford has found that chimpanzees in the wild use medicinal plants to treat their illnesses and injuries.
The team of researchers claims that the latest study is the most in-depth analysis of this behavior to date, Knewz.com has learned.
While monitoring 51 chimpanzees from two communities at the Budongo Central Forest Reserve in Uganda, scientists found sick or injured chimps eating certain plants that were not part of their usual diet.
The researchers collected plant parts from 13 plant species—nine trees and four herbaceous plants—they found the chimpanzees to be feeding on when they were sick or injured and analyzed them at the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Analysts found that 88% of the botanical samples inhibited bacterial growth and 33% had anti-inflammatory properties.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, noted, "These results, integrated with associated observations from eight months of behavioral data, provide further evidence for the presence of self-medicative resources in wild chimpanzee diets."
The study wrote that while most animals "likely consume foods with medicinal properties as part of their normal diets, fewer species have been shown to engage in therapeutic self-medication."
"Instead of an individual passively benefiting from a plant’s medicinal properties through normal feeding, this form of self-medication requires basic awareness of the resource’s healing properties. One of the best-studied animals to engage in this form of self-medication is our closest living relative: the chimpanzee."
Injured chimpanzees were observed eating the resin and bark from the East African mahogany, the bark from C. alexandri or fan palm trees, and the leaves from a C. parasitica fern, showing that the animals actively seek out medicinal plants and ingest specific parts that might help them with their illness.
Similarly, the study also noted, "Individuals with recent cases of diarrhea were observed consuming A. boonei and C. patens dead wood, K. anthotheca bark and resin, and W. elongata leaves."
"Parasitological analyses further suggest individuals with varying degrees of [parasytic infections] consumed S. myrtina and C. alexanderi bark, A. boonei and C. patens dead wood, K. anthotheca bark and resin, W. elongata leaves, as well as A. polystachyus and M. leucantha pith."
Apart from the chimps with endoparasite infections, other members of the community had never been observed eating the bark of S. myrtina, or cat-thorn tree, before. Upon analysis, scientists found that the bark of the tree has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties.
Of all the plant species consumed by chimpanzees to treat illnesses and injuries, scientists found that the Alstonia boonei, commonly known as cheese wood or pattern wood, the Khaya anthotheca, commonly called the east African mahogany, the C. parasitica fern, and the Syzygium guineense, or water pear, have the most pharmacological properties.
"As we learn more about the pharmacological properties of plants ingested by chimpanzees in the wild, we can expand our understanding of their health maintenance strategies," the study noted.
"Whether these resources are consumed intentionally as a form of therapeutic self-medication or passively as medicinal foods, must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking behavioral observations into account."
Dr. Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford's School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, the lead author of the paper, said in a statement via CBS News, "To study wild chimpanzee self-medication you have to act like a detective — gathering multidisciplinary evidence to piece together a case."
"After spending months in the field collecting behavioral clues that led us to specific plant species, it was thrilling to analyze the pharmacological results and discover that many of these plants exhibited high levels of bioactivity."
