Rain forest

Vanilla. Vanilla is the dried, cured, fuU-sized, but not fully ripe fmit pods (beans) of Vanillaplanifolia And. and V. tahitensis J. W. Moore (Orchidaceae). The vine is native to the tropical rain forests of southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. Plantings were started in Madagascar, Reunion, Java, Mauritius, and Zanzibar in 1840. The Madagascar-type bean is stUl the most important, but Indonesia produces more than Malagasy. The stmcture of the flower prevents self-pollination and therefore, where insects are not prevalent, hand pollination is necessary. 

Human activity, particularly in the developing world, continues to make it more difficult to sustain the world s biomass growth areas. It has been estimated that tropical forests are disappearing at a rate of tens of thousands of hm per year. Satellite imaging and field surveys show that Brazil alone has a deforestation rate of approximately 8 x 10 hm /yr (5). At a mean net carbon yield for tropical rain forests of 9.90 t/hm yr (4) (4.42 short ton /acreyr), this rate of deforestation corresponds to a loss of 79.2 x 10 t/yr of net biomass carbon productivity. 

A 1999 study by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology predicts that tropical rain forests will be able to continue to absorb carbon dioxide at the current rate of 2 billion tons per year until global temperatures rise by 8°F (4.5°C). At this point, evaporation rates will be high enough to decrease rainfall for the forests, leading to the collapse of tropical ecosystems. This collapse will decrease the amount of carbon... 

The coca bush Erythroxylon coca, native to upland rain forest areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and western Brazil, is the source of the alkaloid cocaine. 

Many alkaloids have pronounced biological properties, and a substantial number of the pharmaceutical agents used today are derived from naturally occurring amines. As a few examples, morphine, an analgesic agent, is obtained from the opium poppy Papaver somnifemm. Cocaine, both an anesthetic and a central nervous system stimulant, is obtained front the coca bush Erythroxylon coca, endemic to upland rain forest areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and western Brazil. Reserpine, a tranquilizer and antihypertensive, comes from powdered roots of the semitropical plant Rauwolfia serpentina. Ephedrine, a bronchodilator and decongestant, is obtained front the Chinese plant Ephedra sinica. 

Anderson, AB., Ed. Alternatives to Deprestatiorv Steps Toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rain Forest Columbia University Press New York, NY, 1990. 

Jordan, C.F., Ed. An Amazonian Rain Forest Man and the Biosphere Series The Parthenon Publishing Group Park Ridge, NJ, 1989 Vol. 2. 

Van der Merwe, N.J. and Medina, E. 1989 Photosynthesis and C/ C ratios in Amazonian rain forests. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 53 1091-1094. 

Chemical engineering in general and chemical reaction engineering in particular are in key position to carry out this transformation. One of the most important sources of biomass is forests, not only the rain forests and eucalyptus trees growing in the tropical areas of the earth but also the forests in the Northern hemisphere, for instance in Canada, USA, Russia, and in the Fenno-Scandic region. The big... 

C18-0138. Quinine, an alkaloid derived from a free that grows in tropical rain forests, is used in the treatment of malaria. Like all alkaloids, quinine is a sparingly soluble weak base 1.00 g of quinine will dissolve in 1.90 X 10 L of water, (a) What is the pH of a saturated solution of quinine (b) A 100.0-mL sample of saturated quinine is titrated with 0.0100 M HCl solution. What is the pH at the stoichiometric point of the titration ... 

Mediterranean sites in Chile and the steppe ecotone of Argentina, and a second gronp from mesic sites in the Argentinean lakes area and Chilean rain forest. The latter gronp was distinguished on the basis of their 20-carbon unsaturated acids. 

Yet other compounds have been found to inhibit HIV-1 replication through a specific interaction with HIV-1 RT (i.e., quinoxaline S-2720 [68], 5-chloro-3-(phenylsulfonyl)indole-2-carboxamide [69], dihydrothiazolo-isoindolones [70] and a number of natural substances (e.g., calanolide A and inophyllums, from the tropical rain forest trees Calophyllum lanigerum and Calophyllum inophyllum, respectively) [71,72]. All these and yet other compounds could be considered to be NNRTIs. The most potent among the NNRTIs, some of the HEPT derivatives (E-EBU-dM) [63] and a-... 

During the Late Pleniglacial, between 20,000 and 13,000 BP, some 25% of the land surface became covered with continental ice sheets (versus some 10% today). With so much water stored in ice sheets, the sea level dropped to about 120 meters below the present level and large parts of the world became extremely arid. The Amazon rain forest dwindled to isolated refugia, European forests disappeared but for small sheltered areas, and large parts of the globe turned to tundra, steppe, savannah or desert. 

Powers JS, Schlesinger WH (2002) Geographic and vertical patterns of stable carbon isotopes in tropical rain forest soils of Costa Rica. Geoderma 109 141-160... 

Zheng Z, Cour P, Zhou HP, Qin CF (2002) Modem pollen rain in Hainan Island, Southern China altitudinal pollen distribution in the tropical rain forest. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 41 487-496... 

Nature is a highly innovative chemist, and we know only a small fraction of the universe of natural products. Currently, about half of the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States are either small-molecule natural products, such as penicillin, or synthetic molecules that are based on natural products but have better properties. The other half are products of the creative imagination of medicinal chemists. Nature s genetic and chemical diversity is a treasure that should not be squandered. One reason to maintain ecosystems such as rain forests intact is that less than 10% of plant species have been systematically investigated for their chemical products. Also, many microbes, insects, and other species have not been explored for useful products. 

Roulet, M. and M. Lucotte. 1995. Geochemistry of mercury in pristine and flooded ferralitic soils of a tropical rain forest in French Guiana, South America. Water Air Soil Pollut. 80 1079-1088. 

Jordan, C.F. 1969. Recovery of a tropical rain forest after gamma irradiation. Pages 88-109 in D.J. Nelson and F.C. Evans (eds.). Symposium on Radioecology. Proceedings of the Second National Symposium. Available as CONF-670503 from The Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, Natl. Bur. Standards, Springfield, VA 22151. 

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