{"id":2665,"date":"2024-05-04T11:38:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T11:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/04\/orangutan-seen-using-medicinal-plant-to-treat-wound-in-first-for-wild-animals\/"},"modified":"2024-05-04T11:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T11:38:11","slug":"orangutan-seen-using-medicinal-plant-to-treat-wound-in-first-for-wild-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/04\/orangutan-seen-using-medicinal-plant-to-treat-wound-in-first-for-wild-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Orangutan seen using medicinal plant to treat wound in first for wild animals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An orangutan has been observed using a plant with healing properties to treat a wound on its face, in what scientists say is a first for wild animals.<\/p>\n

Biologists witnessed the male Sumatran orangutan – named Rakus – chewing the leaves of a climbing plant known as Akar Kuning.<\/p>\n

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He applied the juicy mixture that was produced on to a wound on his right cheek for more than 30 minutes, until the injury was completely covered.<\/p>\n

Scientists said he selectively ripped off leaves and chewed on them, before applying the resulting mixture precisely on to the injured area, just below his right eye.<\/p>\n

There was no sign of infection in the following days, and in less than five days the wound was closed before healing completely inside a month, the researchers added.<\/p>\n

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The Akar Kuning plant, which is found in tropical forests of South East 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.<\/p>\n

Rakus was not observed putting it anywhere else, so researchers concluded he was probably using the medicinal plant to treat the wound.<\/p>\n

Dr Isabelle Laumer, a primatologist and cognitive biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, said Rakus had sustained the wound three days earlier, probably during a fight with a neighbouring male.<\/p>\n

She said testing of the plant’s chemical compounds showed it had a type of alkaloid, which contains “antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities of relevance to wound healing”.<\/p>\n

Rakus was also observed resting more than usual after being wounded.<\/p>\n

Dr Laumer said: “Sleep positively affects wound healing as growth hormone release, protein synthesis and cell division are increased during sleep.”<\/p>\n

What was less clear to the team was how the ape came to know of Akar Kuning’s healing properties.<\/p>\n

Dr Laumer said orangutans at the Suaq Balimbing research site in Indonesia “rarely eat the plant… [but] individuals may accidentally touch their wounds while feeding on this plant and thus unintentionally apply the plant’s juice to their wounds.”<\/p>\n

In other words, Rakus may have discovered its benefits by accident.<\/p>\n

The team said its findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, could help shed light on how the knowledge of wound medications evolved in humans.<\/p>\n

It said this is the first time a wild animal has been observed using a plant with known medicinal properties to treat wounds.<\/p>\n

The site in Indonesia is a protected rainforest area that is home to 150 Sumatran orangutans.<\/p>\n

It’s a critically endangered species, with around 7,500 left, the World Wildlife Fund said on its website.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An orangutan has been observed using a plant with healing properties to treat a wound on its face, in what scientists say is a first for wild animals. Biologists witnessed the male Sumatran orangutan – named Rakus – chewing the leaves of a climbing plant known as Akar Kuning. He applied the juicy mixture that <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}