Biodiversity (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Part 2: Human Dependence on Biological Diversity
Part 2: Human Dependence on Biological Diversity
Pages 77-116
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 79... ...
As an anthropologist and as a father, I am not prepared to take on that job. You could call this the dilemma of deep ecology meeting the developing world.
|
From page 80... ...
In the developing world, as well as in our overdeveloped world, we are obligated to present economic, utilitarian arguments to preserve the biological diversity that ultimately benefits us all. Deep ecology makes interesting conversation over the seminar table, but it won't fly on the agricultural frontier of the Third World or in the board rooms of the Inter-American Development Bank.
|
From page 81... ...
We chemically screen wild plants in search of new drugs that may be beneficial to humankind. We import millions of dollars worth of medicinal plants into the United States and use them to produce billions of dollars worth of medicines (OTA, 1984~.
|
From page 82... ...
That done, we can return to the ethical and aesthetic arguments of deep ecology with the knowledge that when we look up from our discussion, there will still be biological diversity left to experience and enjoy. The authors of the three chapters that follow are counted among the most successful and most dedicated of the scientists now working to point out the shortterm and long-term benefits of biological diversity three scientists who are working as quickly as possible to discover the unread books of our planet's genetic diversity and to translate those discoveries into practical advantages for their fellow human beings.
|
From page 83... ...
Therefore, it should be of interest to ascertain just how important plant drugs are throughout the world when used in the form of crude extracts. The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the people in 83
|
From page 84... ...
84 of ._ ~ .Q V7.
|
From page 87... ...
87 to, ., .
|
From page 88... ...
88 ._ 4= o Let ~ To ._ ~ au ~ 3 ~ o ~ ~ ._ v ._ ._ ~ Cal ~ .° v V Ct _ i_ V ._ v o ~ ~ C _ ~an~ ~a)
|
From page 91... ...
In Japan The system of traditional medicine in.lapan, known as Kampo, is an adaptation of Chinese traditional medicine. Kampo formulations are essentially multicomponent mixtures of natural products, primarily plant extracts.
|
From page 92... ...
Since then, I have returned to the PRC in 1980 and again in 1985. It is obvious that the system of Chinese traditional medicine, in which the use of plant extracts to treat disease is extremely important, remains today as an important element in providing adequate primary health care for this populous country.
|
From page 93... ...
How many more can be reasonably predicted to occur in the more than 250,000 species of plants on Earth? Use of the NAPRALERT Data Base It is possible to present certain types of data showing the relative interest in studying natural products as a source of drugs by means of the NAPRALERT data base that we maintain at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Farnsworth et al., 1981, 1983; Loub et al., 1985~.
|
From page 94... ...
A second approach is simply to collect every readily available plant, prepare extracts, and test each extract for one or more types of pharmacological activity. This random collection, broad screening method is a reasonable approach that eventually should produce useful drugs, but it is contingent on the availability of adequate funding and appropriate predictable bioassay systems.
|
From page 95... ...
~ Most promising plants seem to be indigenous to developing countries, many of which do not have stable governments and thus cannot provide assurance that there will be a continued supply of the raw material needed to produce the useful drugs. This of course may be true in a strict sense; however, as history shows, it is rare when a useful plant grows only in one isolated developing country.
|
From page 96... ...
Z Greenleaf prepares his arguments for a new drug development program at the ABC Pharmaceutical Corporation in which he proposes to study plants as a source of new drugs.
|
From page 97... ...
Pp. 35-63 in Proceedings of the Second National Symposium on the Pharmacology and Chemistry of Natural Products, Joao Pessoa, Brazil, November 3-5, 1983.
|
From page 98... ...
The bad news is that the same roads that allow us to drive jeeps into the rain forests or up the highest tundras of the Andes, and the very technologies that land helicopters on the mist-shrouded mesas of Mt. Roraima in Venezuela's Lost World, also bring in a flood of land-hungry squatters, ambitious cattle ranchers, and greedy 98
|
From page 99... ...
All are recklessly destructive of nature and in an orgy of environmental brutality, clearcut the forests, burn the trees, and plow up the land to grow more food or graze more cattle, even before any scientist has had a chance to find out what lives there. In the name of growth, progress, and development, and with a colossal self-confidence, we humans are now messing up even the last wild lands and damming the last wild rivers, oblivious of the irreplaceable biological treasures that are being destroyed.
|
From page 100... ...
species and isolated from other such valleys by wet tropical forests below and cold Andean tundras above, a situation favoring spe' elation and, hence, biodiversity. In a nearby gully, iridescent green and blue hummingbirds hovered and flitted about, piercing with their bills the cardinal-red flower tubes of a bushy sage, Salvia oppositifolia, one of several hundred (!
|
From page 101... ...
hybrids, and with subset quent selection, Rick was able to produce several new tomato strains with larger fruit and a marked increase in fruit pigmentation. But most importantly, they had greatly increased the content of soluble solids, mainly fructose, glucose, and other sugars, all attributes of prime importance to the tomato industry.
|
From page 102... ...
These derived lines have been widely distributed to tomato workers, some of whom have been exploiting them with the aim of improving sugar content of new tomato cultivars. The concentration of soluble solids in raw tomatoes is a matter of great economic importance to the processing industry.
|
From page 103... ...
A NEW SPECIES OF WILD MAIZE The sensational story of Zea diploperennis, a wild species of maize (teosinte) recently discoverec!
|
From page 104... ...
104 / BIODIVERSITY The author, Hugh Iltis, standing in a field of teosinte. Photo by Michael Nee, New York Botanical Garden.
|
From page 105... ...
In the final analysis, the necessary investments in nature preserves and in such noncommercial activities as biological expeditions, herbaria, zoological museums, and training of field biologists (especially in the tropics) , inexpensive as these are, are far wiser uses of tax dollars than the billions that are so readily spent on space flights or Star Wars.
|
From page 106... ...
The concept of protecting a plant because it shows promise for aiding human well-being seems to have a much wider appeal than preserving a species for purely aesthetic or academic purposes. Conservationists generally divide useful plants into three categories: medicinal, agricultural, and industrial.
|
From page 107... ...
entirely on tropical plant products. Few people realize how much of our diet today has been determined by exploit ration patterns developed when tropical countries were colonies of Europe.
|
From page 108... ...
C., will take you past Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, Mexican, Central American, and South American restaurants. Kiwi fruit from China was not introduced into this country until 1962, yet last year they were purchased by more than 10 million Americans.
|
From page 109... ...
~ The buriti palm (Mauritia flexuosa; family Palmae)
|
From page 110... ...
Rice grown in Asia is protected from the four main rice diseases by genes provided by a single wild species from India. In both Africa and India, yields of cassava one of the most important crops throughout the tropicshave been increased up to 18 times because of the disease resistance provided by genes from wild Brazilian cassava.
|
From page 111... ...
NATURAL PESTICIDES Many tropical plants have developed chemical defenses to deter predation by herbivorous animals. Tropical people possess a sophisticated knowledge of these plants, often using them as medicines or poisons.
|
From page 112... ...
. These so-called botanochemicals are destined to become increasingly important as raw materials for industry.
|
From page 113... ...
However, several tropical forest species have been used by tribal peoples as sources of edible oils for thousands of years. These oils contain vitamins and minerals and are necessary for cooking in areas where butter or lard are either unavailable or in short supply.
|
From page 114... ...
In order to collect this information, we need to expand ethnobotanical field research. Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the National Geo' graphic Society, together with leading botanical institutes like the Harvard Botanical Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Missouri Botanical Garden, are working to document ethnobotanical lore (Figure 11~1~.
|
From page 115... ...
1975. Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value.
|
From page 116... ...
1986. Plant drugs in the twenty-first century.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.