September 13, 2024, 10:44 am | Read time: 3 minutes
Nature and the animals that live in it never cease to amaze us. For example, scientists recently proved that an orangutan deliberately produced a remedy itself and used it to treat its wound. Now, for the first time, researchers have observed how gorillas specifically use medicinal plants. These could also be useful for human medicine in the future.
When it comes to great apes – our closest relatives – many people have a wide variety of associations in mind. It is nothing new that primates are very intelligent and sentient beings who often exhibit behavior that sometimes seems almost human. However, the fact that many different ape species specifically search for plants and roots in order to heal themselves is only now slowly coming to the attention of researchers.
Researchers find tropical plants with medicinal properties through gorillas
Scientists have now observed gorillas in the Central African country of Gabon producing their own remedies. The animals ate some of the same tree bark that is used by traditional healers and which, according to a new study, can inhibit the growth of E. coli bacteria in petri dishes1
But that’s not all: these observations could now also be exciting for human medicine. This is because the scientists were able to identify a medicinal effect in four of the tropical plants that the gorillas ate in the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park. These could potentially also be of importance for the development of drugs in human medicine in the future.2
Scientists are amazed at the apes’ discovery
Laboratory studies showed that the plants had a high content of antioxidants and antimicrobial substances. One of the plants found proved promising in the fight against superbugs. This term refers to microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi with particularly resistant properties that make them difficult to treat medically. Colloquially, this would be referred to as “multi-resistant germs.”3
Specifically, the four plants found were the Fromager tree (Ceiba pentandra), the yellow giant mulberry (Myrianthus arboreus), the African teak (Milicia excelsa), and the fig tree (Ficus). Particularly exciting: in the study, all four plants showed antibacterial activity against at least one multi-resistant strain of Escherichia coli, or E. coli for short. According to the researchers, the Fromager tree, in particular, showed “remarkable activity” against all tested strains.
The threat of dangerous “superbugs”
Compounds in the bark of the various trees eaten by the gorillas showed efficacy against antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli. This bacteria can cause difficult-to-treat infections such as pneumonia and bloodstream infections in humans. The researchers believe that these plants from the gorillas’ diet could yield promising medicinal prospects for humans. However, more research is still needed.
Earlier studies had already detected drug-resistant E. coli in the gorillas in the park. The microbes can cause disease in humans, while apes often carry these microbes without symptoms. Given that dangerous ‘superbugs’ pose an escalating threat and antibiotics may not always halt their proliferation, the researchers aimed to comprehend how gorillas can carry pathogenic E. coli without succumbing to serious illness.
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“Gorillas have evolved to consume the plants that are beneficial to them
They hypothesized that it must be related to the animal’s diet. As tree bark is an important part of the animal’s diet, the scientists took a closer look.
“This suggests that gorillas have evolved to eat plants that benefit them and highlights the huge gaps in our knowledge of the Central African rainforests,” said Dr. Joanna Setchell, an anthropologist at Durham University in the UK, who worked with Gabonese scientists on the study.