Self-Medication (Zoopharmacognosy)

All human populations medicate themselves with a wide variety of natural and/or unnatural products. Some animals are claimed to consume certain plants not for nutrition, but to self-medicate themselves. Examples include some great apes that consume certain types of leaves that help to ease worms out of the intestine, and some other leaves that may have anti-malarial properties. Whether or not this is a genetically-wired or cultural practice is not known. And the extent to which it has an impact on disease is also not known.