Medicinal Resources of the Tropical Forest : Biodiversity and Its Importance to Human Health

According to World Health Organization estimates, 80 percent of people living in developing countries rely on wild harvested plants for some aspect of their primary health care.

This text aims to open readers' eyes to the enormous resources of the Earth's rainforests and the potential impact of their destruction in terms of human health, as well as the modern-day usefulness of traditional herbal remedies.With the help of funding provided by the National Cancer Institute, Michael Balick and his staff maintain two research institutes, in Costa Rica and Belize.

Scientists, often with the aid of local shamans, locate and collect plants with suspected medicinal value, then send them to these institutes for preservation and study - a process that usually takes about 20 months.

If, after this first evaluation, a plant appears to have sufficient potential medicinal value, others return to gather further specimens from the original site.

Tragically, in many cakes, upon returning to the site, researchers find that it and the forest around it have totally disappeared.In this book, Balick, Elisabetsky, and Laird assemble research presented at various symposiums hosted by their institutes.

While this book should be useful for professionals who work in the fields of biology, health, and tropical studies, people with a more general interest in the tropics should find this information key to understanding related issues so often raised in the popular media and in major motion pictures such as "Medicine Man".