TIL that some wild Chimpanzees practice effective Chimpanzee medicine.
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TIL that some wild Chimpanzees practice effective Chimpanzee medicine.
Researchers identified 45 :exploding_head: antibacterial medicinal plants which the chimpanzees used mostly or exclusively when ill.
The second most effective anti-inflammatory was consumed only once, by an injured individual!
That's not the kind of knowledge that one typically picks up on one's own - too many poisonous plants to go around eating everything one can find when ill!
So to me, this strongly suggests cultural transmission of medical practice! Though it could just as plausibly be an evolved idrive where some scent is only appealing when some symptoms are present - which is still practicing medicine, but wouldn't require teaching.
Pharmacological results suggest that chimpanzees consume several species with potent medicinal properties.
and they
observed ingestion of both [of the strongest anti-parasitic] species by highly parasitized individuals. K. anthotheca bark and resin were also targeted by individuals with indicators of infection and injuries. All plant species negatively affected growth of E. coli.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0305219
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T #medicine shared this topic on
