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The rainforest may someday provide the cure for AIDS, pancreatic cancer, antibiotic-resistant staph infections,
lassa fever, or Alzheimer's disease, if given the chance to do so. Unfortunately, as primary forest cover is diminished by
1-2 percent every year, it is projected that 20-25 percent of the world's plant species will be extinct by the year 2015. Perhaps
in some remote Andean valley, slated for destruction today, lives a rare orchid which has developed an anti-viral
chemical that kills HIV, halts cancer, or slows aging. In addition, the shamans who provide much of the insight
into identifying these plants and their uses, are disappearing at an even faster rate as their villages seek a
more Western lifestyle. These shamans are generally elders and when they die, their unique knowledge of traditional
uses of rainforest plants will die with them.
Some organizations are trying to prevent the loss of medicinal knowledge when indigenous elders die. The Terra
Nova Rainforest Reserve is the first ethnomedicinal forest reserve designed to ensure that medicinal plants will be
available for local use. The reserve encourages the use of such plants and has also implemented a program teaching
youths about uses of medicinal plants so this knowledge will not die, but be passed on to future generations and
researchers.
National botanical gardens, like those of Missouri and New York, are playing an important role in propagating medicinal
plants that are either threatened in the wild or so rare that collection cannot satisfy demand. Several gardens
have propagated such medicinal plants and freely distributed seedlings to peasants who can integrate them into
their traditional food crops. The plants can provide substantially more cash than many traditional crops like bananas,
coffee, and cocoa.
Animals as an inspiration for drugs
Animals also provide compounds useful to humans as medicinal drugs. Both leeches and vampire bats have powerful
anticoagulants they use in feeding on their prey. From the saliva of the leech comes hirudin, which is now used
to dissolve blood clots in humans. The vampire bat has a salival substance that can be used to prevent heart attacks.
The slimy secretions of frogs are used to treat infections, mental disorders, and even HIV, while scientists hope that
one day blood from the ubiquitous (in the western U.S.) western fence lizard (more popularly known as the "blue-belly")
will help prevent or cure Lyme disease. ABT-594 is an experimental painkiller derived from the skin secretions of Epipedobates tricolor, a colorful poison arrow frog, and crocodile blood is being examined for its anti-HIV properties.
PESTICIDES
Plants have been synthesizing chemicals for millions of years to protect them from predation by insects and infection
from disease. Thus rainforest plants have developed a complete array of natural pesticides. These pesticides can
be isolated, and some can be synthesized in the laboratory by pharmaceutical companies. These natural pesticides
are effective for protecting cultivated crops from destruction by pests and disease, without the adverse effects
of chemical pesticides like DDT.
New research shows that using natural predators like wasps and flies combined with limited use of pesticides is more
effective in eradicating pests in the tropics than regular spraying with synthetic pesticides. Chinese scientists have even engineered wasps to deliver lethal viruses to insect pests.
In addition to protecting crops from infestation, many rainforest plants can be used as insect repellents. The roots
of the liana, a philodendron from American rainforests, have an odor that keeps away mosquitoes, while the bright orange
berries of another New World plant, Bixa orellana, are effective in deterring biting insects, in addition to being
used as a body paint and dye. These compounds may be further studied and analyzed by pharmaceutical companies to create new insect repellents that might be less
detrimental to the skin and plastic materials than conventionally-used DEET. These highly effective insect repellents are more ecologically sound and inexpensive
to produce.
How rainforest shamans treat disease
(11/10/2009) Ethnobotanists, people who study the relationship between plants and people, have long documented the extensive use of medicinal plants by indigenous shamans in places around the world, including the Amazon. But few have reported on the actual process by which traditional healers diagnose and treat disease. A new paper, published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, moves beyond the cataloging of plant use to examine the diseases and conditions treated in two indigenous villages deep in the rainforests of Suriname. The research, which based on data on more than 20,000 patient visits to traditional clinics over a four-year period, finds that shamans in the Trio tribe have a complex understanding of disease concepts, one that is comparable to Western medical science. Trio medicine men recognize at least 75 distinct disease conditions—ranging from common ailments like fever [këike] to specific and rare medical conditions like Bell's palsy [ehpijanejan] and distinguish between old (endemic) and new (introduced since contact with the outside world) illnesses. In an interview with mongabay.com, Lead author Christopher Herndon, currently a reproductive medicine physician at the University of California, San Francisco, says the findings are a testament to the under-appreciated healing prowess of indigenous shaman.
Research into drugs derived from natural products declining
(07/09/2009) Although the majority of drugs available today have been derived from natural products, research into nature-based pharmaceuticals has declined in recent years due to high development costs and the drug approvals process. However this trend is likely to reverse due to new approaches and technologies, according researchers from the University of Alberta.
Traditional practices contribute to conservation of medicinal plants
(03/23/2009) Traditional practices contribute to conservation of medicinal plants in West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, report Tuli S Msuya and Jafari R Kideghesho in the March issue of the open access journal Tropical Conservation Science.
Tropical forest tree is source of new mosquito repellent as effective as DEET
(02/05/2009) Isolongifolenone, a natural compound found in the Tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America, has been identified as an effective deterrent of mosquitoes and ticks, report researchers writing in the latest issue of Journal of Medical Entomology.
IP laws not helping indigenous people protect traditional knowledge (repost)
(11/13/2008) Promoting capacity for self-governance rather than using conventional systems governing intellectual property rights may be a more effective way to safeguard traditional knowledge of indigenous groups, argues a new report published by an international team of IP experts. Released at an IP conference convened by Sciences Po, a French research institute, and The Innovation Partnership, a Canadian NGO, the report details how traditional knowledge is treated in Brazil, Kenya and Northern Canada. It finds significant differences in the effectiveness of IP laws and policies in protecting the wisdom and knowledge accumulated by indigenous communities.
