Four plants consumed by wild gorillas in Gabon and used by local communities in traditional medicine show antibacterial and antioxidant properties. The bark of all four plants showed antibacterial activity against at least one multidrug-resistant strain of the bacterium E. coli.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306957

From the linked article:

Four plants consumed by wild gorillas in Gabon and used by local communities in traditional medicine show antibacterial and antioxidant properties, according to Gabonese scientists. They observed western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in a National Park in Gabon and recorded the plants they ate. Next, they interviewed 27 people living in a nearby village, including traditional healers and herbalists, about the plants used in local traditional medicine. The team identified four native plant species that are both consumed by gorillas and used in traditional medicine: the fromager tree (Ceiba pentandra), giant yellow mulberry (Myrianthus arboreus), African teak (Milicia excelsa) and fig trees (Ficus). They tested bark samples of each plant for antibacterial and antioxidant properties and investigated their chemical composition. The bark of all four plants showed antibacterial activity against at least one multidrug-resistant strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli, and the fromager tree showed “remarkable activity” against all tested E.coli strains. All four plants contained compounds that have medicinal effects, the scientists say, including phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins. However, it’s not clear if gorillas eat these plants for medicinal or other reasons. The four plants are promising targets for further drug discovery research, the researchers conclude.