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- author, Helen Bergs
- position, Environment Correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say that gorillas found in the forests of Africa can be helpful in the discovery of new drugs.
In the African country of Gabon, researchers studied the plants used by wild gorillas and indigenous people in traditional medicine for various ailments. Four of these plants have been identified as having medicinal properties.
During laboratory observation, it has been found that these plants have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.
One of these plants also has the potential to fight superbugs.
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Gorillas are known to treat themselves using plants with healing properties.
Recently an injured orangutan made headlines for using a plant paste to heal his injury.
In a recent study, botanists studied the plants used by gorillas in Gabon’s Moqlaba-Dodo National Park.
Based on interviews with traditional healers, the researchers selected four trees they believed to have healing properties.
The bark of these trees is used in traditional medicine by indigenous healers to treat everything from stomach aches to infertility. Chemicals such as phenols and flavonoids, commonly used in medicine, were found in these trees.
image sourceGetty Imagesimage captionGabon is one of the most biologically diverse places in the world.
Research has found that all four plants have antibacterial properties and appear to be effective against a strain of E. coli against which drugs normally do not work.
Researchers say that one of the four plants has been shown to be effective against all strains of E. coli.
Dr. Joanna Setchell, an anthropologist at Durham University in the UK, has worked on the research with scientists from Gabon. Research has shown that gorillas eat plants that are beneficial to them, she says.
This, he says, shows how limited our knowledge of the rainforests of Central Africa is.
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Gabon has vast tracts of forest that scientists still know little about. These forests are home to elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas as well as countless plants.
A large number of gorillas have disappeared from these forests due to poaching and disease. For this reason, they have been included in the list of critically endangered animals on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The research has been published in the journal PLOS One.
