They aren't exactly ready to open a jungle clinic, but new research suggests wild chimpanzees are practicing a kind of medicine.
Fifty-one chimps living in two communities in Uganda appear to select edible plants specifically for their medicinal qualities, reports a team led by Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford in the UK.when battling a sickness that they didn't normally consume when healthy. Freymann's team suspected this might be a kind of self-medication, so they tested the pharmacologic properties of these plants in the lab., they found that 88% of the 13 trees and herbs the chimps sought out when ill contained anti-bacterial properties, while 33% were anti-inflammatory.) showed the strongest antibacterial activity and also had anti-inflammatory properties, suggesting that it could be used to treat wounds," according to an Oxford news release on the study.
“In this paper, 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," they wrote. This isn't the first time scientists have uncovered highly evolved primates practicing medicine: In another report published recently, an orangutan in Borneo was observed rubbing a medicinal plant into a facial