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January 11, 2008
Chimps Eat Dirt to Stay Healthy
Krief collected the dirt along with leaves from one of the chimps' favorite foods, the Trichilia rubescens plant. She found that when eaten alone, the leaves had no pharmacological effect, but when combined with soil, the mixture had clear anti-malarial properties.[...]
Krief also compared the dirt chimps eat to that used by nearby human healers to treat diarrhea. The samples shared many similarities, including a high concentration of the mineral kaolinite, the main ingredient of some anti-diarrheal medicines.
"Local people around Kibale use soil in traditional medicine, associated to different plant parts," Krief said. "It may potentialize the properties of plant or attenuate their toxicity by adsorbing noxious compounds."
(via yahoonews, the complete study to be published in the journal Naturwissenschaften )
Posted by Groonk at January 11, 2008 07:45 PM | Ministry of Animals, Research
