Orangutan makes medicine to treat wound

One of mankind’s closest relatives has been spotted using a medicinal plant to treat its wounds, a world’s first. A giant male Sumatran orangutan, who answers to the name of ‘Rakus,’ was photographed suffering from a prominent wound on his face in mid-2022, prompting scientists to focus their observations on him to see what he did. To their amazement, they saw him chewing on leaves of an Akar Kuning plant, applying the juice to the wound, and then using the rest of the leaf like a band aid. Akar Kuning leaves are known to have potent analgesic (painkilling) properties. Rakus, who is in his late 30s, was seen reapplying the juice and leaves the next day, and then resting until the wound was fully healed.

The leaves did not appear to form part of his normal diet, and the behavior was quite clearly deliberate, leading the researchers to wonder how exactly he knew how to do this. Since no other of his species has ever been seen doing this, they speculated that he may have simply discovered the plant’s healing properties by accident, or that it’s a natural instinct handed down by the great ape’s ancestor – who would also be our ancestor.

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