Sick and injured chimpanzees self-medicate using medicinal plants, researchers have found.

Wild chimps in Uganda have been filmed seeking out and eating plants with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

Lab tests showed that the vast majority of plants eaten by the animals inhibited bacterial growth while a third reduced inflammation.

Researchers think the remarkable primates are deliberately seeking out these plants as treatment when they are poorly.  

And watching chimps could have 'huge implications' for how we discover new medicines in the future.

Lead researcher Dr Elodie Freymann at the the University of Oxford told MailOnline: 'The chimpanzees know the forest better than we do and can help point us in the direction of potent compounds which can help us discover new drugs.' 

Wild chimpanzees eat a wide range of plants, including some which have very low nutritional value but appear to contain medicinal compounds. 

However, while researchers have long suspected that the apes might be self-medicating, it has been extremely difficult to prove that their behaviour was deliberate. 

To see if chimpanzees commonly used plant medicines, Dr Freymann and colleagues watched a community of 51 chimpanzees in the Budongo Central Forest Reserve in Uganda.

Across 116 days of observation, they monitored the health of the chimps and carefully noted what plants they ate.

The researchers then collected samples of 13 plants that had either been eaten by sick chimpanzees or previously suggested to be used medicinally. 

When these plants were tested in a lab, the scientists found that 80 per cent turned out to inhibit bacterial growth while a third had anti-inflammatory properties. 

Dr Freymann says: 'To study wild chimpanzee self-medication you have to act like a detective – gathering multidisciplinary evidence to piece together a case.

'After spending months in the field collecting behavioral clues that led us to specific plant species, it was thrilling to analyse the pharmacological results and discover that many of these plants exhibited high levels of bioactivity.' 

In one case scientists filmed a male chimpanzee with an injured hand who travelled by himself to seek out ferns to eat.

Following testing, it was revealed that these ferns contained highly anti-inflammatory compounds which might have reduced the pain and swelling.

In another case, the scientists watched as a young chimp travelled far from the group to strip and eat the bark of the cat-thorn tree which is traditionally used to treat intestinal worms. 

Subsequent analysis of the chimpanzee's faeces revealed that it did indeed have a severe parasite infection when it sought out the tree. 

This suggests that chimpanzees might not just be eating these plants by accident but actively seeking them out to treat sickness and injury. 

However, the researchers behind the study say that how the chimps might have learned to eat these plants is still an open question.  

Dr Freymann says: 'Right now, it looks like some of the more basic behaviors could be instinctual, but for the behaviors which require specific plant species at specific dosages, it seems hard to imagine this isn't socially learned in some way.'

The researchers say one of the most exciting implications of this finding is how we might be able to learn from chimpanzees to enhance our own medicinal knowledge.

In their paper, published in PLOS ONE, they point out that increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance is creating a need for novel medicines.

Previously untested plants like those in the Bodongo Central Forest Reserve may contain compounds which could form the basis of future medicines.

But rather than testing plants at random, scientists could narrow down their search by looking at what sick chimpanzees chose to eat.

Along with bonobos, chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives, so an effective treatment for them could hold promise for us. 

Interestingly, 11 of the 13 species the researchers tested were already known traditional medicinal uses in regions across Africa.

For example, the fruit of the sandpaper tree eaten by the chimps is also used traditionally to treat wounds, haemorrhoids, venereal diseases, parasites, and arthritis. 

Dr Freymann says: 'Our study highlights the medicinal knowledge that can be gained from observing other species in the wild and underscores the urgent need to preserve these forest pharmacies for future generations.'

She adds: 'To do this we need to protect the chimpanzees and these forests.' 

Previously, another group of scientists in Indonesia observed an adult male orangutan apply medicinal plants to an open wound.

The orangutan named Rakus was seen chewing leaves of the Akar Kuning vine into a pulp which he applied to a cut on his face.

But while the scientists do believe Rakus' behaviour was deliberate, this was only one isolated case rather than evidence of a behaviour trend.