Publication

2000 - Viking, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

56,000 words, Guess

Page Count

224 pages

Identifiers

and 4 more
  • Library of Congress Control Number99042822
  • OCLC Control Number42049304
  • Better World Books9780670869374
  • Open LibraryOL45603M

Classifications

  • DDC615/.321
  • LCCRS160 .P57 2000
  • LCCRS160.P57 2000

Description

From the freezing Arctic to steamy rainforests, Plotkin explores mankind's search for new medicines.

Description

"Plotkin highlights the ironic marriage of natural products, indigenous wisdom, and biotechnology and details discoveries that are already producing stunning leads in the laboratory: painkillers from the skin of rain forest frogs, anticoagulants from leech saliva, and antitumor agents from snake venom. Medicine Quest is a historical odyssey as well: Plotkin provides fascinating background on the centuries-old pursuit of cures that ranges from ancient Egyptian expeditions to foreign lands in search of healing plants, to the nineteenth-century development of aspirin; from willow bark that gave birth to the modern pharmaceutical industry, to the extraction of penicillin from fungi that helped determine the outcome of World War II."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Genres

  • Popular works

Other Editions

  • Medicine quest: in search of nature's healing secretsViking2000-01-01

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