Astounding Facts About Primates that Never Cease to Amaze
16. Wild chimps use medicinal plants to treat themselves for illness and injury.
You might scoff at the idea of herbal medicine, but don’t completely write it off just yet! Chimpanzees in the wild practice herbal medicine, and the plant leaves they rely on have been found to contain powerful antibiotics and even anti-tumor agents! When chimps are ill, they seek out leaves with potent bacteria-killing substances. The Aspilia bushes the chimps seek out have a red oil called thiarubrine-A. Thiarubrine-A is a powerful antibiotic that can kill disease-causing bacteria in concentrations of less than one part per million! When a chimp eats the leaves, the chemical contents of these leaves are released into their digestive tract. If that’s not interesting enough, there’s more.
There are four species of Aspilia, but chimps only eat the leaves of three species. Scientists speculated that African peoples might already know the plant’s usefulness, so researchers visited researchers in East Africa. They found records that indicated that Africans did see the plant’s value and only used the same three species that the chimps did! It turns out the plant that chimps eat when they all actually hold promise for humans, as it contains a powerful antibiotic that kills fungi, bacteria, and nematodes. Perhaps chimps and other primates can continue showing us what plants we should be using to develop new and more effective medications.
You might scoff at the idea of herbal medicine, but don’t completely write it off just yet! Chimpanzees in the wild practice herbal medicine, and the plant leaves they rely on have been found to contain powerful antibiotics and even anti-tumor agents! When chimps are ill, they seek out leaves with potent bacteria-killing substances. The Aspilia bushes the chimps seek out have a red oil called thiarubrine-A. Thiarubrine-A is a powerful antibiotic that can kill disease-causing bacteria in concentrations of less than one part per million! When a chimp eats the leaves, the chemical contents of these leaves are released into their digestive tract. If that’s not interesting enough, there’s more.
There are four species of Aspilia, but chimps only eat the leaves of three species. Scientists speculated that African peoples might already know the plant’s usefulness, so researchers visited researchers in East Africa. They found records that indicated that Africans did see the plant’s value and only used the same three species that the chimps did! It turns out the plant that chimps eat when they all actually hold promise for humans, as it contains a powerful antibiotic that kills fungi, bacteria, and nematodes. Perhaps chimps and other primates can continue showing us what plants we should be using to develop new and more effective medications.
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13 September 2022
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