Chimps Apparently Self-Medicate

Wild chimpanzees treat ailments with medicinal plants, new research suggests

Chimpanzees eat a lot of different sorts of plants, so it can be hard to know why they pick one over another. But when scientists in Uganda observed wild chimps that were sick or injured eating plants the healthy chimps eschewed, a light bulb went off.

The researchers gathered up the apparently medicinal plants and tested them in a lab. The results: “88% of the plant extracts inhibited bacterial growth, while 33% had anti-inflammatory properties.”

A chimpanzee feeding on the fruit of F. exasperate. Credit: Elodie Freymann, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

That doesn’t prove the chimps were knowingly self-medicating, but it’s akin to grandma smoking pot only when her hip hurts (my analogy, not theirs).

“The researchers observed a male Chimpanzee with an injured hand seek out and eat leaves of the fern, which may have helped to reduce pain and swelling,” according to a statement released by the journal PLOS ONE, where the results are published. “They also recorded an individual with a parasitic infection consuming bark of the cat-thorn tree (Scutia myrtina).”

So… can we learn something from our close primate cousins?

“We demonstrate how watching and learning from our primate cousins may fast-track the discovery of novel medicines, while also emphasizing the importance of protecting our forest pharmacies,” the researchers conclude.