Student 18
Global Issues &
Society, Section 01
4 October 1999
Medicinal
Uses in the Rainforest
As an active participant of the 2000 World Rainforest Summit, Merck
Pharmaceutical Company along with many other medical research institutes feel
that it is necessary to preserve and protect the rainforests which circle the
globe due to their unrealized potential for use in modern medicine. As a bioprospector for Merck Pharmaceutical
Company, I take an extreme interest in the world's diverse tropical rainforests which provide habitat for millions of
species of plants. It is estimated that
nearly half of the world=s estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms
will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to
rainforest deforestation. Rainforest
plants are complex chemical storehouses that contain many undiscovered
compounds which are a vital part for the growth and development of the
world. Therefore, we can only gain
access and knowledge to these materials if we study and conserve the species
that contain them. Rainforests
currently provide sources for one-fourth of today=s medicines, and 70 percent of the plants found have anti-cancer
properties. However, they are only
found in the rainforest. The rainforest
and its immense undiscovered biodiversity holds the key to unlocking tomorrow=s cures for today=s devastating diseases.
In 1983, there were no US pharmaceutical manufacturers involved in
research programs to discover new drugs or cures from plants. However, today over 100 pharmaceutical
companies and several branches of the US government, including Abbott, Merck,
Bristol-Meyers, Squibb and the National Cancer Institute are actively engaged
in plant-based research projects for possible drugs and cures for viruses,
infections, cancer, and AIDS. However,
I am presenting the preservation of the world=s rainforests by showing how much more valuable plants are standing
rather than cut down. Indeed, it is a
race against a clock whose every tick means another acre of charred
forest. Yet, in a competitive market,
whoever presents new evidence in chemical bioprospecting will secure health and
a piece of scientific immortality.
We are now losing the earth=s greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate
their Atrue@ value. Tragically rainforests
once covered 14 percent of the earth=s land surface; now they cover a mere 6 percent due to ignorance and
greed by short-sighted government, multinational logging companies, and
landowners. All forests have both
economic and ecological value, but tropical rainforests are especially
important in a global economy. Tropical
forests provide many valuable products including rubber, fruits, lumber, and
medicinal herbs. However, these
valuable natural products that the rainforests provide have fallen victim to
deforestation, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, over 200,000 acres of
rainforest are destroyed every day in the world. Therefore, one can imagine the vast amount of cures and
experimental knowledge lost to the negligence of society.
The Amazon Rainforest is the world=s greatest natural resource and the sacred link between humans and
nature. It supports millions of plant,
animal, and insect species and provides the essential environmental world
service of producing more than 20 percent of the world=s oxygen.
Yet, still it is being destroyed just like other rainforests around the
world. However, rainforests are being
destroyed worldwide for the profits they yield with mostly harvesting
unsustainable resources like timber, for cattle and agriculture, and for
subsistence cropping by rainforest inhabitants. Nevertheless, if land owners, governments, and those living in
the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the
rainforests, then it could and would be saved.
Thankfully, this economic alternative does exist, and many organizations
including Merck have demonstrated that if the medicinal plants, fruits, nuts,
oil, and other resources such as rubber and chocolate were harvested
sustainably, then the land would have much more economic value than if timber
were harvested or if it were burned for cattle or farming operations. By harvesting sustainable products, they
would provide more value today as well as more long term income, health , and
educational purposes for future generations.
No one can challenge the fact that man is still largely dependent on
plants for treating his aliments.
According to Kathlyn Gay, Aalmost 90 percent of people in developing countries still rely heavily
on traditional medicine based largely on species of plants and animals for
their primary health care.@ In the United States, some 25
percent of prescriptions are filled with drugs whose active ingredients are
extracted or derived from plants. Sales
of these plant-based drugs in the U.S. amounted to some $4.5 billion in 1980;
however, worldwide sales of these plant-based drugs were estimated at $40
billion in 1990, as noted by Catherine Caufield. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide originate from
plant derived sources from only 90 species of plants.
The U. S. National Cancer Institute has identified over 3,000 plants
that are active against cancer cells, and 70 percent of these plants are found
only in the rainforest. Twenty-five
percent of the active ingredients in today=s cancer-fighting originate from organisms found only in the rainforest. According to the U.S. Cancer Institute, Athe widespread elimination of the tropical
moist forests could represent a serious setback to the anticancer campaign.@
Tragically, society has been oblivious to the living and breathing
renewable resources provided by the rainforests which has contributed to the
wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of man.
Among the herbal uses for cancer in 1979, the Madagascar periwinkle was
the only major anti-cancer drug from the tropical rainforests. However, it is now extinct in the world due
to deforestation of the Madagascar rainforest and has increased the chances of
survival for children with leukemia from 20 percent to 80 percent. How many children have been spared and how
many more will continue to be spared due to this single rainforest plant? What if we failed to discover this one
important plant among millions before it was extinct due to man=s destruction? Therefore, this great discovery has produced a major breakthrough
in the treatment of cancer.
Chemotherapy involving the Madagascar periwinkle achieves 99 percent
remission for acute and lymphocytic leukemia and 80 percent remission for
Hodgkin=s=s disease. Remarkably,
there use to only exist a 19 percent
chance of remission for this dreaded disease.
Nevertheless, when our remaining rainforests are gone, the rare plants
and animals will be lost forever and so will their possible cures to diseases
like cancer.
Plants surviving in the rainforests are very versatile and inhibit biologically
active chemicals that vary from cardiac and respiratory stimulants to
painkillers and antimalarials. Steroid
hormone medicines, such as cortisone and diosgenin, the active ingredient in
birth control pills, were developed from wild yams in Mexico and
Guatemala. The Mexican yam is used for
the treatment of a wide spectrum of ills including rheumatoid arthritis,
rheumatic fever, Addison=s disease and certain skin diseases.
This versatile species is also used in the preparation of various sex hormones
including Athe pill.@ Potential over-the-counter
sales of this product alone exceed $700 million. Therefore, this vital plant has and still continues to plan an
astounding role in medical breakthroughs.
Had the cinchona tree of eastern Andean tropical forest not yielded
quinine, this world=s
tropical, subtropical, and even some temperate climate residents would be
laboring under the scourge of unmitigated endemic malaria. This mosquito transmitted disease in large
part due to tropical deforestation. By
removing the forest canopy, this brings mosquitoes in contact with humans. The horror of malaria afflicts 200 million
people worldwide, and over one million people die annually in Africa
alone. Quinine is also used in
treatment of headaches and neuralgia, for cardiac arrhythmia, as a sclerosing
agent in treatment of varicose veins, as a substitute anesthetic for
cocaine. In addition, quinine is used
for treatment of bacteriological infections, cinlduing pneumonia and as
stomachic inducers as well. Research
has identified other potential drugs that may have value as contraceptives or
in treating a multitude of maladies such as arthritis, hepatitis, insect bites,
coughs and colds. If a small proportion
of these plants turned out to be as useful as the wild yam, Madagascar
periwinkle or cinchona, any investment in finding and protecting them would be
justified.
More important are the new drugs still awaiting discovery--drugs for
AIDS, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer=s. Many secrets and untold
treasures await discovery with medicinal plants used by shamans, healers, and
the indigenous people of the rainforest tribes. The mysteries of the indigenous medical knowledge are so alluring
that even the U.S. government is funding projects that study their plant knowledge
and specific plants used by native shamans and healers. This untold wealth of the indigenous plants
are the Atrue@ wealth of the rainforest. Rich
in beneficial nutrients, the indigenous people have used them for centuries for
their survival, health, and well-being.
Yet extracting these secrets from the jungles is no easy task, and the
state of affairs may not last long enough into the future for man to unlock all
their secrets. However, these medicine
men and women have shared age-old herbal wisdom within the outside world; and
with this new technology, knowledge may lead to life-saving breakthroughs. Nevertheless, in Brazil alone, European
colonists have destroyed more than ninety indigenous tribes since the
1900's. With them have gone centuries
of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed
by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing. Most medicine men and shamans remaining in
the rainforests today are seventy years old or older. Supposedly, each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if
an entire library has burned down.
However, these indigenous people have a profound effect not only on
medicinal purposes but also for the entire world.
There can be absolutely no doubt concerning the great opportunities for
the discovery of natural remedies, pharmaceutical research and other uses for
the vast variety of plants found in the world=s tropical rainforests. Experts
agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting its many nuts,
fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more
economic value than if they were to be cut down to make grazing land for cattle
or for timber. If managed properly, the
rainforest can provide the world=s need for natural resources on a perpetual basis. By promoting the use of these sustainable
and renewable sources, the destruction of the rainforests could cease. However, I believe in creating a new source
of income by harvesting the medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils, and other
sustainable resources. Therefore, the
rainforests would be more valuable alive than cut and burned. Having sufficient demand of sustainable and
ecologically harvested rainforest products, this would lead to successful
preservation efforts. By purchasing
sustainable rainforest products, positive change would be on the rise by
supporting the native people=s economy and providing the economic solution and alternative to
cutting the forest solely for the value of timber. This much needed income source creates the awareness and economic
incentive for humanity in the rainforest to protect and preserve the forests
for long term profits for ourselves as well as future generations and to save
the rainforest from further destruction.
Works
Cited
Brown, Lester R.
Christopher Flavin, and Hilary French Sate of the World. New York:
W. W. Norton Company, 1999.
Caufield,
Catherine. In the Rainforest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1984.
Emerich,
Monica. AWhat You Should Know About Rainforest Remedies.@
Preserving Mayan Medicine. March 1998, Galileo. Online.
Dialog. 1 Oct. 1999.
Gay, Kathlyn. Rainforests of the World. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1993.
Henahan, Sean. ARainforest Medicines.@ Newsmaker Interviews. (1996): 6 pages. Online
Internet. 1 Oct. 1999. Available
Jenkins, Mark. AThe Secret Garden.@ Men=s Health. Oct. 1997, vol.12: 142. Galileo.
Online. Dialog. 25 Sept. 1999. Available
Meyers, Norman. Rainforests. Emmaus: Rodale Press,
1993.
Newman, Arnold. Tropical
Rainforest. New York: Edison Sadd
Editions, 1990.
Taylor, Leslie. Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest. Rocklin: Prima Publishing, 1998.
.