Wounded orangutan uses plants to heal injury: NPR

In a rainforest in Indonesia, researchers discovered a lesion on the face of a male orangutan, which they named Rakus. They were astonished to watch him treat his wound with a medicinal plant.

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In a rainforest in Indonesia, researchers discovered a lesion on the face of a male orangutan, which they named Rakus. They were astonished to watch him treat his wound with a medicinal plant.

Armas/Market Project

When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound on his cheek, he did something that astonished researchers: he chewed the leaves of a plant known for its healing and pain-relieving properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound, and then used the leaves as a treatment. A compress to cover his injury.

“This case represents the first known case of treating active wounds in a wild animal with a medicinal plant,” biologist Isabel Loomer, first author of a paper on the discovery, told NPR.

She says she was “very excited” about the innovation the orangutan appears to have been documented in Palimping market research website In Gunung Leuser National Park in northwest Sumatra, where about 150 orangutans live in a protected rainforest.

An orangutan named Rakos. Loomer says he may have gotten the big cut in a fight with a rival man. A few days later, he was seen using a plant to treat his injury. The wound then healed, apparently without any infection.

Loehmer and another researcher, Caroline Schäubli, led a team of cognitive and evolutionary biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany and the National University in Indonesia.

What happened?

After about a month of applying the medicine to his wound, Rakos was completely healed, leaving only a slightly noticeable scar. This photo was taken approximately two months after the infestation was first discovered.

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About a month after applying medication to his wound, Rakos was completely healed, with only a slightly noticeable scar. This photo was taken approximately two months after the infestation was first discovered.

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Rakos was spotted with the new wound on June 22, 2022. Three days later, he began eating the stem and leaves of a liana plant — a vine that researchers say the orangutan population of Suak rarely eats. From here, his behavior became increasingly deliberate and specific.

Rakos spent 13 minutes eating the plant, then spent seven minutes chewing the leaves and not swallowing them, instead applying the plant’s juice to his wound. When flies started landing on his wound, Rakos covered it completely with leaf material and went back to eating the plant.

Within five days, the wound had closed. By July 19 — about a month after infection occurred — “the wound appeared to have completely healed with only a slight scar remaining,” the biologists said in their paper, published on Thursday. Scientific reports.

If Rakkus was acting as its own nurse, it also appears to have been a good patient: the day after first laying the leaves, the orangutan found the plant again and ate more leaves. He also got more rest than usual, which researchers say likely gives his body a better chance of healing.

What plant was used as medicine?

Pictures for Februria tinctoria Leaves, left. On the right, Rakos is shown eating more leaves a day after applying plant netting to his wound.

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Pictures for Februria tinctoria Leaves, left. On the right, Rakos is shown eating more leaves a day after applying plant netting to his wound.

Al-Saidi Ajam/Souk project

Its common name is Akar Kuning (Februria tinctoria). It is a type of liana – a vine that climbs tree canopies to reach sunlight. The plant has analgesic, antipyretic and diuretic effects. In traditional medicine in the region, it is used to treat diseases ranging from dysentery and diabetes to malaria.

Analysis of chemical compounds in the plant has found the presence of… Furanoterpenoids And Protoperpine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities relevant to wound healing,” according to the researchers’ paper.

The newspaper said: “It also contains jatrorhizin (antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, anticancer, hypolipidemic… and palmatine) (anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral properties).

So what does the plant taste like? We asked Loomer if she’s tried it herself.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Orangutans rarely eat at market (in only 0.3% of approximately 390,000 feeding surveys).”

Who is Rakos?

Rakos is a male Sumatran orangutan believed to have been born in the late 1980s, meaning he was around 32 years old when he was seen applying leaves to his wound. It was first observed in the area in March 2009.

Its self-medication is extremely rare: Researchers say that “in 21 years and 28,000 hours of observation,” observers at the research station have never seen an orangutan use leaves to treat their wounds.

Rakus is not from the forest as he is seen tending to his injury.

“Male orangutans disperse from their natal area during or after adulthood over long distances either to establish a new home range in another area or to move between the home ranges of others.” Shopley said in a press release About the results.

“Therefore, it is possible that this behavior may be exhibited by a larger number of individuals in its native population outside the research market area.”

Nearly two years after his injury, Rakos is doing well.

“He’s now one of the dominant males in research,” Loomer told NPR.

What is “ointment behavior” and what does it mean?

Rakos chewed leaves and applied them to a cut on his cheek, providing himself with medical attention. His injury healed without infection, leaving a barely noticeable scar.

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Rakos chewed leaves and applied them to a cut on his cheek, providing himself with medical attention. His injury healed without infection, leaving a barely noticeable scar.

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Rakos’s seemingly innovative behavior suggests that “medical wound treatment may have originated in a common ancestor between humans and orangutans,” according to the paper.

The wound may be treated with Februria tinctoria It all started as a lucky accident, the researchers say, noting that the plant has powerful pain-relieving effects. They added that by applying compresses, the orangutan’s main goal may have been to protect its wound from flies.

But because orangutans are thought to continue adding skills into adulthood through social learning, it is possible that the treatment strategy also spreads socially from one individual to another.

Can Rakos share his medical expertise with other orangutans? This enters into the issue of social culture. In the past, Sumatra orangutans have demonstrated a skill at exchanging innovative ideas, with popular behaviors spreading as far as natural boundaries, such as a river.

The findings could lead to new insights into the evolution of self-care and medicine in primates.

Great apes, humans’ closest relatives, have been documented to eat certain plants for therapeutic or anti-parasitic benefits. The researchers also noted that in Gabon, chimpanzees were observed applying small insects to wounds, although they noted that “the effectiveness of this behavior remains unknown.”

“The treatment of human wounds was most likely first mentioned in a medical manuscript dating back to 2200 B.C., which involved cleaning, plastering, and dressing wounds with specific wound care materials,” Schopley said in the press release.

Noting that wound healing actions have been demonstrated in humans as well as African and Asian great apes, she added, “It is possible that there is a common underlying mechanism for identifying substances with medicinal or functional properties and applying them to wounds.” “And that our last common ancestor did indeed display similar forms of ostracizing behavior.”