Self-medicating gorillas may hold clues to future drug discovery, according to scientists.
Researchers in Gabon studied tropical plants eaten by wild gorillas – and used also by local human healers – identifying four with medicinal effects.
Laboratory studies revealed the plants were high in antioxidants and antimicrobials.
One showed promise in fighting superbugs.
Great apes are known to self-medicate by selecting plants with healing properties.
A wounded orangutan recently made headlines for using a plant paste to heal an injury.
In the latest study, botanists recorded the plants eaten by western lowland gorillas in Gabon’s Moukalaba-Doudou National Park.
The bark of the trees – used in traditional medicine to treat everything from stomach complaints to infertility – contained chemicals with medicinal effects, from phenols to flavonoids.
I – Word Understanding
Phenols – A very poisonous chemical substance made from tar and also found in some plants and essential oils.
flavonoid – any of a class of nonnitrogenous biological pigments extensively represented in plants.
