Chimpanzees use plants to treat wounds; Biomimicry, Democracy
Chimpanzees use plants to treat wounds for themselves and others. Scientists are examining these plants for possible use on humans. Republicans want to provide less healthcare and medical research.
Recent research has provided compelling evidence that wild chimpanzees use plants for medicinal purposes and also apply these natural remedies to treat the wounds of other chimpanzees, including unrelated individuals.
Medication and Wound Care
Chimpanzees in Uganda’s Budongo Forest have been systematically observed treating their wounds with medicinal plants. These behaviors include licking wounds, applying chewed leaves, and dabbing plant matter directly onto injuries. Many of these plants have been tested and possess antimicrobial and healing properties.
Care for Others (Prosocial Behavior)
In addition to self-care, chimpanzees have been documented treating the wounds of others. Out of 41 recorded cases of wound care, seven involved chimpanzees tending to unrelated group members, suggesting a level of empathy or social strategy. This is among the first systematic documentation of such prosocial medical care in wild chimpanzees.
Methods of Application
Direct wound licking may apply antimicrobial compounds from saliva, finger licking, wound pressing, leaf dabbing, and chewing plant materials to create a paste for wound application.
Plant Selection and Efficacy
Researchers identified several plant species used by chimpanzees, many of which are also known in local traditional medicine for their healing properties. Laboratory tests confirmed that most plants inhibit bacterial growth, and some have anti-inflammatory effects. For example, the fern Christella parasitica and the bark of specific trees were found to have potent medicinal qualities.
Evidence of Recovery
All observed chimpanzees that received such treatments, whether self-administered or provided by other chimpanzees, recovered from their injuries without human intervention.
Implications for Human Evolution
These findings provide insights into the evolutionary roots of healthcare behaviors, highlighting cognitive and social foundations that may have preceded human medicine.
This behavior encompasses a range of techniques and highlights complex social and cognitive skills, offering valuable insights into the evolutionary origins of healthcare and the potential for discovering new medicines in the natural world.
Elephants have also been observed practicing this type of self-care, eating olive leaves with antibiotic properties after ingesting potentially harmful chameleons.
Studying chimpanzee self-medication bridges ethnopharmacology, ecology, and medicine. By decoding their plant selection strategies, scientists have gained actionable pathways for drug development while preserving biodiversity critical to primate and human health. This approach exemplifies how interspecies behavioral studies can revolutionize modern healthcare challenges.
Where is the current administration taking us?
The Trump administration has restricted healthcare and canceled scientific research, reversing care for others (prosocial behavior) and medical research.
Rollback of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Protections
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order rescinding Biden-era protections for the ACA and Medicaid, including revoking orders to strengthen these programs and lower prescription drug costs.
Trump has renewed his push to repeal the ACA, which would eliminate protections for over 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions and potentially strip millions of their health insurance coverage.
He has not presented a comprehensive replacement plan, instead referencing vague “concepts” for a better system, while criticizing the ACA as “lousy” and “stinking”.
Trump has also indicated a willingness to cut spending on Medicare and Medicaid, which the House is including in its current budget. Millions of Americans rely on these programs.
Attacks on Reproductive Health and Rights
The Trump administration has refused to defend the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in states with abortion bans, effectively allowing hospitals to deny life-saving abortion care in emergencies.
Federal funding for Title X, which supports clinics providing family planning and preventive reproductive health services, has been frozen, leading to clinic closures and jeopardizing access to birth control, cancer screenings, and STI treatment for millions.
Agency websites with vital reproductive health information have been scrubbed or taken offline, increasing confusion and limiting access to care.
The administration has also reinstated restrictions on U.S. funding for foreign organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive health services, further limiting global access to care.
Undermining Public Health Infrastructure
Trump’s executive orders have halted research grant reviews, travel, and training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), disrupting critical biomedical research and the development of new treatments.
Temporary freezes on federal funding have affected Medicaid programs in several states, leaving vulnerable populations without essential healthcare services.
The administration has stopped key government agencies from issuing scientific communications without approval from a presidential appointee, undermining public access to health information.
CDC programs addressing maternal health have been dismantled, halting progress on reducing maternal mortality and undermining evidence-based interventions.
Targeting Immigrants and Marginalized Populations
Trump has expanded the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into hospitals and clinics, reversing previous guidelines that protected healthcare settings as sensitive areas. This has deterred immigrants and other vulnerable groups from seeking care, increasing public health risks.
Policies targeting asylum seekers and migrants have further eroded access to health services for these populations.
In approximately 120 days, the Trump administration has begun to reverse prosocial behavior, which has existed in all living species since their existence. He has also curtailed medical research, which is approximately 2000 years old.
We are moving backward at a time when exceeding expectations is critical for the well-being of all, as the world becomes more complex and dangerous. Only four years ago, the world faced the most widespread epidemic.
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