Fighting Malaria is a 'Dirty' thing!
Chimpanzees in Uganda have been seen to eat earth in what is thought to be a method of fighting malaria.
Clay soils ate by chimps and humans in Kibale National Park (Uganda) contain high concentrations of the mineral kaolinite, a main ingredient in some anti-diarrheal medications.
Previously this strange habit was thought to have warded of intestinal ailments or simply to obtain more minerals in there diet. A French team that was observing the chimps found that eat the fine grain clay after consuming leaves from a plant that contains very strong medicinal chemicals, the Trichilia Rubescens. "To only eat this would give now benefit to the chimps at all though", say the Frenchman.
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.
"This may be to avoid worms, bacteria, and stones," she said.
Krief and colleagues described the research online in the January issue of the journal Naturwissenschaften.
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