Some of the chemicals from rain-forest leaves, flowers, and seeds are used to make perfumes, soaps, polishes, and chewing gum. Other chemicals of the rain forests kill germs and fight diseases such as cancer. Rain forests are essential to recycling water. Almost half of all the world's rain falls on rain forests. Plants trap water in the soil and then slowly release it into the air, where it evaporates.
Clouds form and rain falls, filling rivers and streams.
That water is later used for drinking and irrigating crops. Where rain forests have been cleared from the land, much less rain falls. The land becomes hard and dry. Animal and plant life disappears. Thousands of rain forest animals become extinct every year.