The rainforest is quite useful you know - Part 1

Why bother with the rainforest? I hear you ask. What could we possibly use it for?

Medicine. Much of the medicine used today (even in modern medicine, yes) comes from plants found in rainforests. Estimates seem to range from 25% to 40%. Additionally, we haven't even tested all the plant species in the rainforest for it's potential medicinal use. Tyler (2001) suggests that only about 5% of all plants have been tested opening up huge avenues of potential for new medicines to be developed from rainforest flora. For those of you interested in placing monetary values on resources, the rainforest is estimated to have a value of $167 billion in terms of the value to society that can be gained from medicines developed from rainforest plants.

Tyler's study goes on to have a more negative viewpoint with an almost despairing conclusion mentioning that he doesn't believe that the rainforest can be maintained in its current state and we may have to act quickly to get the most out of it in terms of benefits to the health of a global society. On the other hand, he does tell it to enjoy it as it lasts at least!

Were some of these developed from plants in your local rainforest?

It is probably worth adding that we must take caution when trying to discover a new medicine that may derive from a rainforest plant. A significant proportion of modern medicine which came from rainforest plants were discovered because of local people who already used the plant for medicinal purposes. The potential of the rainforest to provide new medicine must therefore be taken with a pinch of salt as we may have already discovered a large proportion of potential medicine due to the local people but also the amount of plants that we have not studied is so vast, it may be hard to even find a starting point (Voeks, 2004).


For some more information on some specific medicines which came from the rainforest check out this link.

That's all for now.