Elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves, researchers find

Scientists have documented that elephants self‑medicate by selecting particular plants when they appear unwell, a finding reported after collaboration with the Mount Elgon Foundation. Researchers interviewed local wildlife scouts and elders, whose accounts described elephants choosing specific vegetation and mothers administering medicinal plants to their calves. From these observations the team concluded that elephants utilise 35 different plant species, 25 of which are recognised locally for their medicinal properties. The study, published in Scientific Reports, kept interviewees anonymous to encourage candid testimony. One wildlife scout’s account noted seeing elephants employ a plant known as Angurweet “as medicine to springiness to babies”. Angurweet is described locally as a remedy for ailments including stomach ache. The scout recounted that elephant mothers mix the plant in their mouths, “removing the leaves and chewing it until smooth, on with the roots of immoderate different trees”. He further observed mothers combining this material with their own milk, stating, “They springiness it to the babies, who chew connected it themselves and spit retired the solids”. Professor Michael Huffman, a primatologist based at Nagasaki University, characterised the relationship as “tantalising”, but emphasised that additional evidence is required to demonstrate that elephants provide bespoke medical care for their young. The research team has already begun gathering such data, equipping the local wildlife experts who assisted them with cameras to record the behaviour. In parallel, scientists are analysing the plants elephants consume to identify potential new medicines that the animals may have discovered. Dr Fabien Schultz of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told BBC News, “Local cognition has fixed america a map”. He added, “We [now] privation to travel the elephants and analyse whether they prime peculiar plants in peculiar wellness contexts, and whether those plants person applicable biologic activity.”