Amazon Scientists Warn of "Bio-Piracy" of Medicinal Plants
12/20/97
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Headline: Amazon Scientists Warn of "Bio-Piracy" of Medicinal Plants
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 12/20/97
Byline: Sergio Berrocal
Copyright 1997: Agence France-Presse
BELEM, Brazil, Dec 20 (AFP) - As interest in medicinal plants
grows and scientists search for miracle cures in traditional
treatments, some botanists here worry that Brazil is reaping no
benefits from one of its most unique resources.
Vicky Schreiber, a Canadian researcher with the Para Federal
University in this gateway city to the Amazon, said pharmaceutical
companies from around the world have sent scientists to search the
jungle for plants with medicinal qualities that they can then
exploit to manufacture medications.
"If one day a miracle cure for the most terrible illness ... is
discovered, it will probably happen in the Amazon region," one
scientist told AFP.
More than 60 percent of the Amazon basin's seven million square
kilometers (2.8 million square miles) runs through Brazil, the
remaining 40 percent being shared among Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
French Guiana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela.
Some 70 percent of all mass-produced drugs are derived from
medicinal plants, and 80 percent of the world's population uses the
plants themselves to treat everything from hypertension to syphilis,
according to the World Health Organization.
Teas made of Hortela are used to treat coughs, the Anador plant
serves as an analgesic, while Veronica serves as an anti-anemic and
anti-inflammatory treatment.
Schreiber said anyone with a minimum of botanical training can
spot these plants and slip out of the country with seeds that can
later be used to make lucrative medicines.
"It is very difficult to control what is being called
'bio-piracy,'" Schreiber said.
Alfredo Kingo Oyama Homma, of the Center of Investigation for
Agriculture and Horticulture in the Eastern Amazon, agrees.
"It is enough for someone to place a few seeds in his pocket and
cross the border," he told AFP.
One solution, Schreiber said, would be for the government to
grant strictly enforced contracts concerning collection and
development rights over Brazil's unique plant life.
Other scientists say that formula is overly optimistic.
Maria Elisabeth Van den Ber of the Emilio Goeldi Museum of the
Amazon said everyone should have access to the plants and the
medicinal secrets they hold but that the benefits should be for
Brazil.