Wild medicine: learning from chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives and share many of our behaviours. Now it seems that they may also use plants as medicine.
Elodie Freymann, from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, tracked wild chimpanzees in Uganda, where the primates displayed some surprising behaviours. Chimpanzees who showed signs of injury or illness seemed to eat specific plant material. Analysis of these leaves, resins and tree bark revealed that they had antimicrobial and bioactive compounds.
Surprisingly, many of the local villagers were also found to be reaching for the same plants, suggesting that chimpanzees may have some understanding of the medicinal properties of these forest pharmacies.
Written and edited by: Charlotte Bird
Filmed by: Elodie Freymann
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