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Humans have been medicinal plants since prehistoric times. They are still around the world in traditional medicine. For the first time, scientists have that chimpanzees also seek out the fruits of the forest to themselves when sick. Researchers from Oxford University in the UK a study of chimpanzee behaviour at the Budongo Central Forest Reserve in Uganda. The researchers a male chimp with an injured hand looking for the leaves of a fern. The fern properties that may have the swelling in the ape's hand. Another chimpanzee with a parasitic infection out the bark of a cat-thorn tree. This may have helped to the animal's condition.

The research team said there was a strong correlation between the chimpanzees' ailments and injuries and the healing properties in the flora they . The researchers plant extracts that not a normal part of a chimpanzee's diet. They that 88 per cent of the extracts anti-bacterial properties, while 33 per cent of them anti-inflammatory qualities. Researcher and anthropologist Dr Elodie Freymann said: "Pharmacological results that Budongo chimpanzees several species with potent medicinal properties." She her team's investigations into the primates' behaviour may the way for a greater use of natural remedies in our lives.