Chimpanzee pharmacy

摘要

FOUND across tropical Africa, Aneilema aequinoctiale is a perennial flowering shrub that can grow to 2m. Its leaves and their leaf-sheaths are covered in fine, hooped trichomes that make them feel sticky when touched — hence the English vernacular name, clinging aneilema. The shrub's roots have been used in a variety of disorders, including skin conditions, eye diseases, constipation, leprosy, kwashiorkor, amenorrhoea and osteomalacia. But perhaps the plant's most interesting use is as an anthelminthic.What makes it so interesting is chimpanzees rather than humans use it for this purpose. It is not a normal part of the apes' diet, and research has confirmed that chimpanzees self-medicate by swallowing the leaves of aneilema and similar plants.