Indonesian primatologist observes male in the wild Sumatran orangutan (pongo abeli) A person with a scar on his face.Three days after his injury, he selectively plucked the leaves of a vine with the common name Akal Kunin (fibrourea tinctoria), chewed them and repeatedly applied the resulting juice to facial wounds. As a final step, he completely covered his wound with chewed leaves. This behavior presents the first systematically documented case of active wound treatment with a biologically active plant by a wild animal and provides new insights into the origins of human wound treatment.
Wound healing process: Lacus ate the chewed leaves and then applied them. fibrourea tinctoria He suffered a facial injury on June 25, 2022. On June 26th he was observed feeding again. fibrourea tinctoria leaf. By June 30th the wound had closed and by August 25th it was almost invisible. Image credit: Laumer other., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58988-7.
In the early 1960s, legendary primatologist Jane Goodall first described the presence of whole leaves in animal feces. Chimpanzee (pan-troglodytes) At the Gombe River in Tanzania.
By the 1990s, this behavior (now called leaf slurping), along with bitter pith chewing, had been recorded in several African great ape research sites and was shown to have therapeutic and antiparasitic functions. has been proven.
Since then, various forms of self-medication have been observed in wild great apes.
In June 2022, researcher Isabel Romer of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior and colleagues observed a male orangutan at the Suak Balimbin research area in Indonesia's Gunung Leuser National Park.
“During our daily observations of orangutans, we noticed that a male named Lacus had a scar on his face, probably from a fight with a neighboring male,” Dr. Romer explained.
Lacus nibbled on the stems and leaves of the climbing plant Akal Kunin. used in traditional medicine For the treatment of wounds, erythema, diabetes, malaria, and other conditions.
“This vine and related vine species, found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, are known for their analgesic and antipyretic effects and are used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of diseases, including malaria.” said Dr. Romer.
“Analysis of plant compounds has shown the presence of furanoditerpenoids and protoberberine alkaloids, which may have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities related to wound healing. is known.”
Lacus applied the resulting juice repeatedly for seven minutes to a wound on his right cheek that he had inflicted three days earlier.
He then smeared the chewed leaves on the wound until it was completely covered and continued to eat the plant for over 30 minutes.
The researchers reported that there were no signs of wound infection for several days after observation. The wound closed within five days and was completely healed within a month.
Lacus repeatedly applied the plant material to the wound, but not to other parts of the body, and the whole process took more than 30 minutes, suggesting that she probably intentionally treated the wound on her face with Akal Kuning. Highly sexual.
Scientists don't know if this was the first time Lacus had treated a wound, or if he had previously learned this behavior from other orangutans in his region.
Lacus appears to have intentionally treated the wound, suggesting that this behavior may have originated in a common ancestor shared by humans and great apes.
“The first mention of human wound treatment was probably in medical texts dating back to 2200 B.C., which included the use of certain wound treatment substances to cleanse, plaster, and bandage wounds. It involved winding,” said Dr. Caroline Spru, a researcher at the Max Institute. Planck Institute for Animal Behavior.
“Forms of active wound treatment are found not only in humans but also in the great apes of Africa and Asia, so there is a common basis for recognizing and applying substances with medical or functional properties to wounds and wounds. A similar mechanism may exist, meaning that our last common ancestor already exhibited similar ointment behavior.”
team's paper It was published in the magazine scientific report.
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IB Laumer other. 2024. Active self-treatment of facial wounds with biologically active plants by male Sumatran orangutans. science officer 14, 8932; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58988-7
Source: www.sci.news
