Rain forest biological diversity

Burns, M. K. 1998. Biological diversity being eroded in Amazon Even in an Ecuadorean national park, where rain forest species are supposed to be protected, colonization and poaching threaten the delicate ecosystem. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), April 23, p. 2A. 

Wendt, T., Composition, floristic affinities and origins of the Mexican Atlantic slope rain forests, m Biological Diversity of Mexico, Origins and Distribution, Ramamoorthy, T.P. et al., Eds, Oxford University Press,... 

As discussed, nature provided the source of inspiration for the synthesis of aroma chemicals. This remains as true today as it was in the nineteenth century. One of the reasons to explore the rain forests is biodiversity prospecting, which is the search for novel chemicals from biological sources. Rain forests are home not only to the majority of the world s flowering plants but to the majority of insects as well. This diversity of new flowers and pollinators increases the probability of discovering new aroma chemicals. 

However, if we are to optimize the development of the existing biome, a quite different approach is required, for this beautiful little comer of the cosmos has extremely limited resources. Much has been said and written about the potential of the rain forests to yield new crops and new biological and medicinal agents based on the established biological diversity of species in a given area (23,34). But relatively little has actually been done thus the proof of such potential is lacking. 

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