We often think about the modern age of medicine as being enlightened and elevated compared to what it was in the past. When you stop to look at the world around you, however, you may come to realize that animals, including birds and even orangutans, learned how to self medicate, long before Hippocrates
According to Helen Morrogh-Bernard, a behavioral ecologist with the Borneo Nature Foundation, orangutans are worth a second look. She has been studying them for decades and has found evidence they use plants as medicine.
Over 20,000 hours of observation were responsible, as Morrogh-Bernard and her colleagues continued to watch 10 orangutans chewing the plant that is not part of their diet. Rather than eating it for food, they would chew it until it became a foamy lather and then rub it on there fur. They may have spent up to 45 minutes at times massaging it onto their legs and upper arms. The researchers feel that it is the first example of a nonhuman animal using a topical anesthetic.
The local plant, Dracaena cantleyi, may not look like much to the eye but even local humans use it to treat aches and pains. Morrogh-Bernard’s co-authors at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Palacký University Olomouc, and the Medical University of Vienna were involved in a study of the chemistry. Extracts of the plant were added to human cells that were grown in a petri dish and had been stimulated to produce an immune response that would result in discomfort and inflammation. The plant extract reduced the cytokines that were present, showing that it would help with the pain. The findings were reported in Scientific Reports in November.
According to a biologist at Emory University, Jacobus de Roode, the study suggests that the plant may be used by orangutans to reduce pain and inflammation. She was not involved in the study. These findings may help us to identify other chemicals and plants that could be useful to treat pain in humans.
The ability to self-medicate is not only something seen in humans and other animals, it is seen in insects as well. For example, woolly bear caterpillars will eat certain plant substances that are toxic to parasitic flies.
It is thought that an orangutan may have rubbed the plant on its skin to treat parasites and discovered that it reduced pain. Other orangutans would have then picked up on the use of the plant, making it a regular occurrence in that area.