Do animals use plants as medicine? Absolutely! I offer my thoughts on a new research article reporting an orangutan's use of a plant to heal a facial wound.
Would the lack of proper collection permits prevent collecting the post used leaves by Rakus? Couldn't they have taken photos of the rest of the plant and certainly, recorded the gps coords easily? Truly disappointing after such serious observations.
This is an important study or observation, but I completely agree with you that the absence of positive plant identification and collection of herbarium specimens is a major weakness. Fibraurea tinctoria is a well-known medicinal plant in SE Asia, and is easily recognized. I understand the permitting issue, but if the authors had geolocated the plant, they should have been able to obtain a collection permit. As your own work has shown, it is important in evaluating medicinal plants to establish that there is both good ethnobotany and good chemistry before drawing conclusions about efficacy.
Fibraurea tinctoria contains berberine, which is well documented to accelerate wound healing. There are good reasons to think that this was not a random choice on the part of the orangutan. There is documented evidence of medicinal use of plant by orangutans in Borneo. The indigenous Dayak people of Kalimantan tell us that they have learned from orangutans about efficacious medicinal plants. Dayak people have told me that orangutans have language, but do not share it with outsiders for fear of being enslaved. I don't know if this is true, but it does show that there are meaningful interactions between humans and orangutans.
So interesting! This certainly needs more study.
Would the lack of proper collection permits prevent collecting the post used leaves by Rakus? Couldn't they have taken photos of the rest of the plant and certainly, recorded the gps coords easily? Truly disappointing after such serious observations.
This is an important study or observation, but I completely agree with you that the absence of positive plant identification and collection of herbarium specimens is a major weakness. Fibraurea tinctoria is a well-known medicinal plant in SE Asia, and is easily recognized. I understand the permitting issue, but if the authors had geolocated the plant, they should have been able to obtain a collection permit. As your own work has shown, it is important in evaluating medicinal plants to establish that there is both good ethnobotany and good chemistry before drawing conclusions about efficacy.
Fibraurea tinctoria contains berberine, which is well documented to accelerate wound healing. There are good reasons to think that this was not a random choice on the part of the orangutan. There is documented evidence of medicinal use of plant by orangutans in Borneo. The indigenous Dayak people of Kalimantan tell us that they have learned from orangutans about efficacious medicinal plants. Dayak people have told me that orangutans have language, but do not share it with outsiders for fear of being enslaved. I don't know if this is true, but it does show that there are meaningful interactions between humans and orangutans.