(...) Rodriguez is one of perhaps several hundred researchers around the world following a similar quest for new antibiotics and other medications from plants, but his research is unique in one aspect: The plants he is studying were selected by chimpanzees in Africa.

The plants were discovered by Harvard anthropologists who followed sick chimpanzees around in the bush and observed the plants they ate in an effort to heal themselves. Rodriguez and Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham believe that this is the first time animals have led researchers to potential new drugs.

So far, the researchers have identified 11 different plant species that make up what they call the "Pharmacopeia of the Apes." (...)

The identification of the new compounds began in 1971 when Wrangham, crouched in an African rain forest at dawn, watched a chimpanzee do something that struck him as unusual. The chimp carefully selected leaves from a bush, rolled them around in its mouth, then swallowed them.

"The leaves did not seem to provide food because the chimp didn't chew them," said Wrangham, who was working with noted behaviorist Jane Goodall at the time. "At first I thought that the leaves were a stimulant. Then I began to observe this behavior in apes who vomited and had diarrhea. The idea finally hit me that the chimps were taking medicine."

Dawn after dawn, Wrangham watched apparently ill chimps approach the bushes, a member of the daisy family called aspilia. They chose leaves with meticulous care, swallowed them whole, then made curious facial expressions like a child who had just taken castor oil. (...)

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