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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> August
> August 27, 1999:
Hour One: Plants as Medicines
Take two of these leaves and call me in the morning...
Not all medicines come in little white pills. In fact, once upon a time, most of the world's medicines came in the form of roots, leaves, and berries. Herbal medicine has treated cultures around the world for generations, and still is the primary form of treatment in many areas today. And increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are realizing that their next big breakthrough might be found in a patch of moss, or the roots of a bush -- and are scouring the world looking for leads. | The active ingredient in aspirin once came from willow bark. Paclitaxel (also known as Taxol), a compound found in the Pacific yew tree, which has been found to help treat some cancers. Drugs to help treat diabetes have been found in the rosy periwinkle. And with the surge of interest in herbal medicine, scientists are closely studying the ingredients of plants from echinacea to St. John's Wort. | 
The Pacific Yew yielded the cancer
drug Taxol... what else is out there?
(image: US Park Service) | The practice is called "ethnobotany" by some, "bioprospecting" by others. Some researchers spend time discussing the plants used by local healers, and then investigating those plants to see how they produce their effects. Other researchers, working on the assumption that surprises may be lurking under every leaf, collect samples of as many plants as possible and test each one for activity against hundreds of diseases.
But how do these bioprospecting efforts fit into plans for conservation
of habitats around the world? And how can - or should - native peoples
worldwide be compensated for sharing their knowledge of herbal medicine
with western companies? Plants as medicines, and how they get there
- on this special remote broadcast of Science Friday.
Broadcasting live from St Louis, Missouri!
We're the guests of member station KWMU-St Louis this week,
broadcasting from the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Guests:
Dr. Peter Raven
Director
Missouri Botanical Garden
Author, "Biology, 4th Edition"
St. Louis, Missouri
Dr. Jim Miller
Associate Curator
Director of Applied Research
Missouri Botanical Garden
St. Louis, Missouri
Dr. Steven King
Shaman Botanicals
San Francisco, California
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Missouri Botanical Garden
Shaman Pharmaceuticals
Ethnobotany Leaflets
Interesting Sites Related to Ethnobotany
Bioprospecting
Index of Medicinal Plants by Common Name
USNA/FNPRU: National Herbarium
National
Cancer Institute's Natural Products Branch
- This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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