The treasure of the jungle

1995/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Farmakologia

Protecting tropical forests is more than just an ecological attitude. It is not only because we say so, but researchers at Yale University have confirmed that the development of pharmacology would be hampered by the exploitation of tropical forests in the short term.

The research program focused from the Yale focuses on the list of plants of the rainforest and on the knowledge of which can be used in pharmacology. However, researchers have found where these first plants were, plains that seem deserted. According to provisional data, tropical forests are the origin of 125,000 plant species today useful.

The drugs derived from these plants, for their part, are known worldwide and constitute the main pillar of current pharmacology. According to the researchers, there are many plants still unknown in tropical forests, but they have recalled that the study of these future remedies is very conditioned.