Natural medicines from plants have been used to enhance human and veterinary health since time immemorial, as revealed in ancient tales, scriptures and other historical literature . This practice is experiencing a resurgence.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 80% of the world’s population uses medicinal plants (MPs) for their health and care needs .
Recent studies have focused on the potential to develop antioxidant and antimicrobial drugs from plants. These antioxidants, for example, reduce the incidence of many metabolic diseases . Antioxidants also reduce the incidence of chronic inflammation by reinforcing immunity, which would ultimately contribute to the efficacy of antimicrobial therapy.
The results of this study, which examined the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Ceiba pentandra, Myrianthus arboreus, Ficus ssp and Milicia excelsa BCEs, plants are consumed by western lowland gorilla living in MDNP and used in traditional medicine by Gabonese healers, revealed some important facts. Indeed, all plant BCEs studied showed antioxidant and antimicrobial activities.
The asymptomatic nature of theses gorillas with regard MDR E. coli (DECs) could be explained by their consumption of the bark of the four plants tested. The scientific results obtained during pharmacological analyses could justify the use of these plants in the traditional pharmacopoeia against various human diseases.
These results show that the BCE of these plants could be used as an effective treatment for diseases caused by free radicals and diseases caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacterial strains. Then, all this founding could comfort the self-medication hypothesis of non-human animals, including great apes. The results of our study suggest that all plant BCEs studied could potentially be candidate improved traditional medicines (ITMs) in the application of new therapeutic protocols against infectious diseases of bacterial origin.