A coral reef may save your life one day. Why have we done so little to return the favor?
The vast majority of medicines, from powerful narcotics to common headache pills, were derived originally from nature -- that's up to 70% of new drugs in the past couple of decades in the United States alone.
This is hardly surprising. Many animals, from chimpanzees to parrots, have been seen to search for favorite plants or mineral deposits during times of stress. Even our pet dog gets in the act, nibbling on grass perhaps to ward off tummy trouble. Perhaps our early ancestors watched and emulated.
Our earliest records of written history prescribe natural remedies for various ailments, and some have even made it into modern prescriptions. Best known is the common aspirin, a derivative of salicylic acid. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, knew this, and as far back as 400 BC. willow bark -- which contains salicin -- was prescribed for a host of aliments.
More recently, scientists have been turning their attention to a vast, relatively untapped storehouse of promising new drugs: tropical coral reefs.
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-sanjayan/this-reef-may-save-your-l_b_865855.html
No comments:
Post a Comment