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As if on a visit to their neighborhood
pharmacy, capuchin monkeys living in the jungles of Costa Rica appear
to seek out and apply a variety of natural remedies to their fur to keep
their skin healthy and bug-free.
The monkeys may intentionally
select these plants for their medicinal value. Some of the plant-based
therapies used by the capuchins might even be useful in treating human
skin ailments.
The researchers found that
the monkey's "fur-rubbing" behavior, where the animals use their
mouths and hands to break up seedpods and leaves from specific plants
before rubbing them into their fur, was actually a sophisticated form
of self-medication.
The leaves of two plants used
by the capuchins -- Piper marginatum ("cake bush"), Clematis
dioica ("Old man's beard"), and the seedpods of a third plant,
Sloanea ternifola, each have "some antibacterial, antifungal and
antiarthropodal (bug-repelling) properties. Extracts of both cake bush
and S. ternifolia inhibited the growth of disease-causing staphylococcus
and candida microbes, while cake bush extract also proved effective in
repelling ants.
Sloanea ternifola seedpods
may do double duty as both tool and drug: according to the researchers,
the monkeys also use the spiky pods as combs to rid their fur of parasites.
Its not entirely clear that
capuchins consciously seek out medicines in their environment. "The
behavior might be similar to learned taste aversions, where animals (including
humans) learn to avoid foods that make them sick.
And the capuchins aren't alone
at playing doctor within the natural world. Zoologists believe certain
species of bears may also engage in therapeutic fur-rubbing, while chimpanzees,
baboons and spider monkeys eat specific plants to rid themselves of gastrointestinal
ailments.
Journal
of the American Academy of Dermatology June 2002;46:924-925
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