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Daily dose of dirt

COMPILED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN



Self-medication: Just leaves and dirt.

Chimpanzees in Uganda swallow mouthfuls of dirt to “self medicate” against malaria, according to a new study. Clay soils consumed by both chimps and humans in Uganda’s Kibale National Park contain high concentrations of the mineral kaolinite, a main ingredient in some anti-diarrhoeal medications. A French team recently observed that the chimps eat dirt before or after consuming leaves from the Trichilia rubescens plant, which contains potent medicinal chemicals. Eating the bitter vegetation alone gives the chimps no health benefit, researchers say. Instead the plant’s malaria medicine is activated when fine soil particles bind with chemicals in the leaves. Chimps often select dirt that has been exposed on the roots of newly fallen trees, added study co-author Sabrina Krief, of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

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Young World

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