Scientists found that the cuddly animals, of which there are around 1,600 in the wild in China, produce a powerful antibiotic in their blood stream that could be used to create potent new treatments against drug resistant superbugs and other diseases.
Researchers discovered the compound, known as cathelicidin-AM, after analysing the panda's DNA.
The antibiotic is thought to be released by the bear's immune system to protect them infections when they are living in the wild, The Telegraph reported.
The researchers found that the cathelicidin-AM was found to kill bacteria in less than an hour while other well known antibiotics took more than six hours.
They hope to develop the substance either as a new drug to tackle superbugs or as an antiseptic for cleaning surfaces and utensils.
Fortunately, scientists will not need to depend upon the animal's notoriously unreliable breeding capacity to harvest the new antibiotic as they have been able to synthesis it artificially in the lab by decoding the genes to produce a small molecule known as a peptide.
"It showed potential antimicrobial activities against wide spectrum of microorganisms including bacteria and fungi, both standard and drug-resistant strains," Dr Xiuwen Yan, who led the research at the Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University in China, said.
"Under the pressure of increasing microorganisms with drug resistance against conventional antibiotics, there is urgent need to develop new type of antimicrobial agents," Yan said.
"Gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides play an important role in innate immunity against noxious microorganisms. They cause much less drug resistance of microbes than conventional antibiotics," Yan added.
Pandas have dwindled considerably as their bamboo forest habitat in China and south east Asia has been destroyed.
They are notoriously poor at breeding, even in the wild, as the females only come into season once a year.
Despite millions of pounds being spent using expensive artificial breeding techniques, their numbers have increased little.
The discovery that they produce powerful compounds that can be used to make new drugs will almost certainly strengthen the case to conserve the endangered creatures.
Yan and his colleagues also believe there may be other potential drugs hidden within the panda genome.
They have found other powerful antimicrobial compounds in the mucus produced by snails and in some amphibians.
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