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Topics: Animals, Nature, Science, News, World News
Niamh Shackleton
It's not new information that apes are extremely intelligent beings, but many probably didn't realise just how smart they are.
Biologists minds have been blown by Sumatran orangutan Rakus, who healed himself using plants.
This is the first time scientists have observed a wild animal treating a wound with a plant known to have pain-relieving properties.
Rakus resides in in Indonesia and was spotted chewing the leaves of a climbing plant known as Akar Kuning (Fibraurea tinctoria) and applying the juicy mixture to a wound on his right cheek.
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It's believed he sustained the injury while fighting a neighboring male orangutan.
The team observed Rakus selectively ripping off leaves and chewing on them, and then applying the resulting mixture precisely onto the wound.
He did this for 30 minutes until the cut was completely covered.
Rakus had sustained the lesion three days before his self medication was observed at the Suaq Balimbing research site in Indonesia – a protected rainforest area home to 150 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.
The researchers said there were no signs of wound infection in the following days that he applied the self-made mixtures.
The wound then closed within five days and was fully healed within a month.
During this healing period, Rakus was said to be seen resting more than usual as 'sleep positively affects wound healing as growth hormone release, protein synthesis and cell division are increased during sleep'.
Scientists say that it is likely that Rakus was intentionally treating the wound with the medicinal plant as he did not apply it to other parts of the body.
Dr. Isabelle Laumer, a primatologist and cognitive biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, said: “During daily observations of the orangutans, we noticed that a male named Rakus had sustained a facial wound, most likely during a fight with a neighbouring male.”
She said the Akar Kuning plant, which is found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia, is known for its pain relieving and anti-inflammatory effects and is often used in traditional medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, diabetes and malaria.
Dr. Laumer continued: “Analyses of plant chemical compounds show the presence of furanoditerpenoids and protoberberine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities of relevance to wound healing.”
The team now hope that its findings regarding Rakus, published in the journal Scientific Reports, could help shed light on how the knowledge of wound medications evolved in humans.