Bioprospecting efforts have yielded drugs to treat other conditions as well. For example, Kurt Hostettmann, PhD, and his co-workers found an antifungal compound called a diterpene in the root bark of an African tree that grows in Zimbabwe, he says. Hostettmann is director of the Institute for Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The Swiss researchers are working with an American pharmaceutical company to market the drug and are developing antifungal creams for other fungal infections such as athlete's foot. But Hostettmann says they are careful to respect the spirit of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, which provides guidelines requiring fair distribution of money to the country in which the any new medicine's compound was discovered.
Plants have a long history of being used for their medical properties.
Many of today's drugs include substances inspired by what people found in plants. In the countries where researchers look for new drugs, local governments are concerned these hunts will lead to piracy of valuable substances and creatures. But researchers note if products are developed, the revenue generated must be shared with the countries that provided the raw materials. All rights reserved. Email This to a Friend.