Natural products endangered

Chapter 16. Threatening natural product diversity Table 16.2.5.1. Endangered natural products on land... 

Under this situation of stress, natural products unique to endangered areas are the most threatened, while those of wide distribution are subjected to a lessened pressure. The analysis of natural product losses is made difficult also by the presence of microbial symbionts that may be responsible for the presence of unusual metabolites in macroorganisms. 

Second, natural products from endangered plants are scarcely known just because ofthe rarity and protection of the species. Protection is extended towards commercial exploitation, vsdiich deters pharmaceutical companies from undertaking any study of the plants. The agreement between Merck and Costa Rica for examining the local flora is an exception, but the results remain under corporate secrecy. 

Table 16.2.5.IL Endangered marine natural products in western Indo-Pacific coral reefs...

Table 16.2.5.IV. Endangered unique natural products in Indian Ocean coral reefe...

Tabk 16.2.5.V. Endangered marine natural products in American coral reels... 

Proposals to implement a biorefinery approach for platform chemical production have ignited a debate on whether biorefinery feedstock production threatens food security and increases the rate of deforestation (Ravindranath et al., 2008). It s worrying because the feedstock suitable for biorefinery implementation is procured primarily from forests. Any activity such as feedstock production, which puts considerable pressure on the forest cover, endangers natural heritage and biodiversity (Achten et al., 2013). This chapter discusses various forest-based feedstocks for biorefinery. Moreover, it seeks to elaborate the industrial applications of this feedstock, their characteristics and land requirements (essentially the extent of theoretical deforestation), their production, and procurement. Clearly the influence of biorefinery on woodlands will rely on the nature of the feedstock being used. For example, Brazil utilizes deforested land for sugarcane cultivation and subsequent ethanol production. However, in the case of Indonesia, rain forests were cleared for palm oil production. All of the biorefinery processes require cellulose as the raw material, and since the major source of cellulose in nature is in the form of trees, large-scale deforestation seems to be a plausible end scenario (Gao et al., 2011). 

One may well ask why is the identification of the actual source (so) important The answer is usually that if the source is microbial in nature, then it may well aid in the production of an important lead compound or even of a clinical candidate via fermentation, rather than requiring heroic measures to collect and process massive amounts of raw material from a source that may itself be scarce or endangered, or both. 

In addition to sulfur, Cl2-compounds such as Clj-dioxide occurred rather frequently. Processes which require high temperatures are less endangered by simple Cl2-com-pounds, but by more critically valued products such as dioxins. They represent a de-novo synthesis which is partly dependent upon temperature conditions (Buekens etal. 2001), and dioxins produced in processes such as sintering or metal smelting in a cocktail of volatile substances can be spread widely over adjacent areas. The liberation of dioxins from industrially loaded areas by a form of washing ouf through temporarily increased water levels makes management of these contaminants difficult, and this is in addition to the chemical nature of the dioxin. The dioxin load of the... 

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