Natural Product Research and Biodiversity

Over the past few decades, the use of natural products as drugs and dietary supplements has raised an increasingly important question What impact does it have on biodiversity The widespread popularity of some natural products has resulted in their rapid destruction in the environment. One of the best-documented examples of this pattern is the decimation of wild echinacea resources throughout the United States. Sales of the plant in 2002 amounted to more than 32 million, and manufacturers are eager to obtain as much as they can from American sources. As a result, the plant is rapidly being depleted from its natural habitat, which ranges across large parts of the Midwest. 

The popularity of ginseng has already led to its extinction in some parts of the world (such as South Korea) and to its classihcation as an endangered species in other parts (such as China) due to overharvesting. Today, more than 65 tons of the root are harvested in the United States each year, most of it going to the Far East. At this rate, the plant faces possible extinction in this country also. 

Goldenseal is yet another threatened herb in the United States and other parts of the world. It currently sells for about 100 a pound, making it highly popular for individual, independent workers who tear it out of its natural habitat. In 2003, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species proposed listing it as an endangered species. 

Such losses are potentially serious problems for drug research. Maintaining biodiversity is an essential component of future research efforts to identify possible drugs in the world s plant and marine resources. Scientists have no idea how many species there are in the world, but reasonable estimates place the numbers at about 250,000 plant species and up to 1 million marine species. So far, no more than about 10 percent of all plants and 1 percent of all marine organisms have been studied for possible use as drugs. 

Given these circumstances, it is possible that countless numbers of new natural products with potential for use as drugs are still waiting to be discovered. As more and more plants and animals are destroyed each year by deforestation, development, and 

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