The True Value of
the Rainforests
Almost 7,000 medical compounds are derived from plants with an estimated value of $43 billion in 1985—approximately 25% of all prescriptions. An interesting study dealing with the extinction of plants in the United States alone can be seen at the CIESIN page. According to this study, 5,000 species of flowering plants have been examined for medicinal usefulness. Of these, 40 plants are currently used in the United States for drugs amounting to $8.112 billion or $203 million per species. With this in mind, the extraordinary value of plant species in both America and in biologically unexplored regions such as the rainforests becomes readily apparent. According to Rain-tree.com , the value of land in the rainforests is about $60 dollars per acre if timber is harvested, and $2,400 per acre if resources the land provides are harvested.
In the mid 1980’s, drug makers began to run short of compounds to treat diseases, and the world began to realize the rainforests where shrinking at an alarming rate, so scientists began to head toward two goals: to change the way people look at the rain forest, and to change the way people looked for medicine. Today, many companies including Merck, Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the National Cancer Institute, and the U.S. government are engaged in plant-based research. The hope is that with luck these types of efforts will produce cures to such global epidemics as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and other life threatening and debilitating diseases. In 1991 Merck announced an agreement with Costa Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute to obtain plant and animal samples for drug screening purposes.
The real question in the end is not whether or not the rainforest can provide possible benefits for humanity, but if the rainforests will be around long enough for these benefits to be discovered. With rainforests covering only 6% of the earths surface now, compared to 14% 50 years ago, one must ask the question, in another 50 years will the rainforests and all their possible cures be destroyed? Or will humanity see the value that the rainforests contain.Additional Links:
Rainforests, Parmacy to the World
Rainforest Action Network
HomeWhat is Combinatorial Chemistry?
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The Value of The Rainforests
The Fate of the RainforestMedicines Discovered from rainforest Plants
Source Literature:Whitmore and Sayer, 1992. Tropical deforestation and species extinction. Chapman and Hall, New York.
Joyce, C. 1994. Earthly Goods. Little, Brown, and Company, Boston