Self-medicating gorillas could provide the key to the discovery of future drugs.
Self-medicating gorillas could aid scientists
Researchers in Gabon have studied the tropical plants eaten by wild gorillas and used by human healers in the African nation and have identified four that have medicinal effects.
Studies in the laboratory have revealed that the plants are high in both antioxidants and antimicrobials - with one even showing promise in fighting superbugs.
The primates are known to self-medicate using plants with healing properties and botanists found that four trees in the Gabonese rainforest showed antibacterial activity against at least one strain of the E.coli bug.
Dr. Joanna Satchell, who worked on the study for the University of Durham in the UK, told BBC News: "This suggests that gorillas evolved to eat plants that benefit them, and highlights the huge gaps in our knowledge of the Central African rainforests."