Elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves

The study relied on interviews with people who live and work near elephants in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya.

These animals have long attracted scientific interest due to their exceptional behavior. They are known as “salt-mining elephants” because they enter caves and scrape rocks with their tusks to extract minerals needed for their diet.

The recently published study indicates that the elephants themselves use various plant species in the forest for therapeutic purposes.

Elodie Freeman, one of the study’s lead researchers from Brown University in the United States, said the study raised questions about whether the destruction of forest habitats deprives animals—and humans as well—of the medicines they need to grow and recover.

Freeman told the BBC: “This shows how intertwined our medicines are with the non-human world.”

The scientists collaborated with the Mount Elgon Foundation, an environmental conservation charity, and conducted interviews with local residents, including wildlife rangers and community elders.

Accounts indicated that elephants select specific plants when they show signs of illness, and that elephant mothers provide plant materials with therapeutic properties to their calves.

The researchers also found that elephants use 35 different plant species, 25 of which are locally known for their medicinal uses.

After centuries, these scientists are delving deeper into what we can learn from wildlife about the properties of plants in the forest habitats where they evolved.