Chimpanzees use forest medicine

Plants used by chimps as medicine

Chimpanzees in Uganda have been filmed using medicinal plants to treat injuries, not just on themselves but on other community members.

The research by scientists from the University of Oxford and a Ugandan team in the Budongo Forest focused on two chimp communities. The 51 apes studied were observed to be using the plants in a variety of ways. These included brushing the plants gently on a wound and also chewing them up initially, before applying them.

The report's lead, Dr Elodie Freyman from the University of Oxford, highlighted the complexity of the study. She explained, "You have to act like a detective, gathering multi-disciplinary evidence".

Although unofficial details of plant use had been recorded since the 1990s, the Oxford team hoped to establish if the chimps' use was intentional or not. To achieve this, they observed the apes' behaviour, in combination with pharmacological testing of the plants.

The plant extracts were analysed at Neubrandenburg University, Germany, where 88 percent of the plant extracts were revealed to reduce bacterial growth. In addition, 33 percent decreased inflammation in the body. Dead wood from one tree species was shown to have the strongest antibacterial effect, and this happens to be a plant also used by communities in East Africa to treat various conditions.

Scientists think researching how primates use these healing plants could help in the search for new treatments. Dr Freyman commented, "The more we learn about chimpanzee behaviour and intelligence, the more I think we come to understand how little we as humans actually know about the natural world."