Earthly goods

Description

Earthly Goods, a tale of exotic adventure and modern medicine in the tropics, describes the quest for green medicines begun centuries ago by native dealers and shamans, and now being transformed by western science into a high-stakes commercial enterprise. The rainforest has long been a symbol of mystery and power, a sacred link between humans and nature. It is also the richest biological incubator on the planet, supporting millions of plant, animal, and insect species - a virtual library of chemical invention. In these archives, the likes of quinine, curare, steroids, and cancer drugs have been found; still waiting for discovery are drugs for AIDS, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. But with deforestation and daily extinction of species, this unexplored potential is rapidly being extinguished. A new pharmacological industry has sprung up, drawing together an unlikely confederacy: plant-collectors and anthropologists; ecologists and conservationists; AIDS and cancer researchers; and executives in the world's largest drug companies. They are part of a radical experiment: to preserve the world's great forests by showing how much more valuable they are standing than cut. It is a race against a clock whose every tick is another acre of charred forest. Yet it is also a race that pits one explorer against another, for those who score the first big hit in chemical prospecting will secure wealth and a piece of scientific immortality. From the emerald forests of Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Cameroon to the New York Botanical Garden and the timberland of the Pacific Northwest, from the laboratories of drug companies to the conference halls of prominent research foundations, Earthly Goods describes this remarkable experiment. Probing the complex issues surrounding this pharmacological adventure, Christopher Joyce describes firsthand a journey that reaches into the farthest corners of a disappearing world - and ultimately to a challenging vision for our future.

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