Subject: Re: Synthetic drugs vs. plant derived drugs

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 95 11:50:51 PDT

There are many rain forest amphibians and reptiles including venomous
snakes that contain important substances needed for medical research
and human treatment as well as plants. Destroying habitat not only makes
the plants dissapear but insects, amphibians and reptiles --- all of
which contain substances of medical importance.  There are literally
millions of such substances, mostly peptides, that await disocvery and
subsequent synthesis. Destroying the forest destroys the potential for making
such discoveries. There is a good book which reviews the scientific
literature on this subject: Medical Herpetology which can be obtained
>from  the publisher  NG Publishing, RD 3, Box 3709A, Pottsville, PA 17901.
It is 160 tightly printed pages and costs $19.95. I recommend this book
for anyone interested in drugs derived from natural sources, partricularly
tropical species. It also includes a review of plant derived compounds
used as antidotes for snake venom poisoning.

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From: [email-masked] (Ryan Crow)
Date: 5 Jan 1995 04:37:45 GMT

I am researching a topic that I hoped you could help me with.  I am trying
to answer the question: How will deforestation effect potential new drugs? 
I have found lots of information on the topic.  Including pharmaceutical
companies that are based in the rain forests, new plant based drugs, new
drug searches in biologically diverse areas, and the process of turning a
pharmaceutically appealing plant compound into a new drug.  However, I am
having trouble finding information on the process of making drugs
synthetically.  Almost all of the articles I find only mention synthetic
drug companies in passing.  However, I know that close to 60% of a
currently used drugs were synthetically derived.  My questions to you are:
What do you know about the synthetic drug industry?  Where should I look
for more info on synthetic drug development?  How important do you think
this technology will be in the future?  How important do you think the
rain forests are as a source of new medicines?  In the future, will this
change?  It would be helpful if you would compare the importance of
synthetic drug development to drug development from rain forest plants. 
        I would be grateful for any help.   Please e-mail of c.c. me, as
I do not always read this newsgroup.

Ryan Crow
[email-masked]