Why do dogs and cats eat grass? Probably to purge themselves of tainted food. Likewise, wild animals medicate themselves with certain plants of the world's rain forests. And such behavior is leading scientists to study the same plants, partly because this natural pharmacopoeia may also benefit mankind - if destruction of rain forests can be slowed.
In Tanzania a chimpanzee seeks out a plant of the spiderwort family. Instead of chewing the leaves, it swallows them whole. Harvard University anthropologist Richard Wrangham suspects the purpose to be medicinal, because chimps eat another plant, Aspilia, the same way. Aspilia contains a red oil called thiarubrine-A, which is very potent against bacteria, fungi, and parasites, according to Eloy Rodriquez of the University of California at Irvine. He believes that swallowing the leaves without chewing allows most of the medication to be released in the intestines where the parasites are found.
Chimps select such plants, even though they provide few nutrients. But other animals get food along with a taste of their own medicine, researchers are finding. In Ethiopia baboons eat a fruit containing an agent that attacks parasites. In Brazil the fertility of muriqui monkeys may be linked to the plants they eat at certain times of the year. And in Costa Rica howler monkeys even eat different plants that may determine the sex of their offspring.
Source : National Geographic.
In Tanzania a chimpanzee seeks out a plant of the spiderwort family. Instead of chewing the leaves, it swallows them whole. Harvard University anthropologist Richard Wrangham suspects the purpose to be medicinal, because chimps eat another plant, Aspilia, the same way. Aspilia contains a red oil called thiarubrine-A, which is very potent against bacteria, fungi, and parasites, according to Eloy Rodriquez of the University of California at Irvine. He believes that swallowing the leaves without chewing allows most of the medication to be released in the intestines where the parasites are found.
Chimps select such plants, even though they provide few nutrients. But other animals get food along with a taste of their own medicine, researchers are finding. In Ethiopia baboons eat a fruit containing an agent that attacks parasites. In Brazil the fertility of muriqui monkeys may be linked to the plants they eat at certain times of the year. And in Costa Rica howler monkeys even eat different plants that may determine the sex of their offspring.
Source : National Geographic.
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