Chapter 3: Living Resources; Section 4: The Search for New Medicines By: Eddie, Mary, Bonny, John and Micheal

Biodiversity and Medicine Most medicines are found in wild organisms. In 1995 the American Medical Association called for the protection of Earth’s biodiversity, to discover more medicines to cure complex diseases. Examples: Source of Cancer Treatments may be found in a type of flower called, Madagascar Rosy Periwinkle, and a Longsnout Seahorse. Sources of heart medications can be found in a poisonous plant type called Foxglove.

The Story of Taxol Taxol, is a substance found in the type of tree called Pacific Yew. When in contact with cancerous cells (tumors), Taxol forms various types of cage structures, to trap the cancerous cells and prevent them from expanding. Taxol shrink certain types of tumors, and stop some of the cancer from spreading in the body. Taxol is now used to treat thousands of cancer patients each year.

The Supply of Taxol Three barks of Pacific Yew were required to produce enough pure taxol for just one cancer patient to be dosed with. As science developed and medicines were improved with Taxol, the demand for Taxol grew, bigger and bigger. Resources for the Taxol, which were the pacific Yew trees, were very limited, and even those were mainly cut down by deforestation. Luckily, scientists have worked for many years to reproduce taxol’s complex chemical in the lab; an experiment in which succeeded in the mid-1990’s.