According to scientists, self-medication by gorillas could provide leads for future drug development.
Researchers in Gabon studied tropical plants eaten by wild gorillas – as well as by local human healers – and identified four with medicinal properties.
Laboratory studies have shown that the plants contain many antioxidants and antimicrobial substances.
One of them showed promise in the fight against superbugs.
Great apes are known to self-medicate by selecting plants with medicinal properties.
An injured orangutan recently in the news for using a plant paste to heal an injury.
In the most recent study, botanists have recorded which plants are eaten by western lowland gorillas in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in Gabon.
They selected four trees that they thought might have healing properties, based on interviews with local healers: the fromager tree (Pentagonal Ceiba), giant yellow mulberry (Myrianthus arboreus), African teak wood (Milicia excelsa) and fig trees (Ficus).
The bark of the trees, which are used in traditional medicine to treat everything from stomach complaints to infertility, contained chemicals with medicinal effects, from phenols to flavonoids.
All four plants showed antibacterial activity against at least one multi-resistant strain of the bacteria, E. coli.
The fromager tree in particular showed “remarkable activity” against all strains tested, they say.
“This suggests that gorillas have evolved to eat plants that are good for them, and highlights the huge gaps in our knowledge about the rainforests of central Africa,” said Dr Joanna Setchell, an anthropologist at the University of Durham in the UK, who worked on the study with scientists from Gabon.
Gabon has vast, unexplored forests, home to forest elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas, among others. There are also many plants that are still unknown to science.
Poaching and disease have led to the disappearance of large numbers of western lowland gorillas in the wild.
They are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Wildlife’s Red List as Critically Endangered.
The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
