The Oceans - A Storehouse of Undiscovered Drugs and Medicines Essay

The Oceans - A Storehouse of Undiscovered Drugs and MedicinesThe health of human populations requires a wide variety of chemical and physical supports from both local ecosystems and from the globular ecosystem. The subject of this paper is the indirect relationship between biodiversity and human health, in particular with regard to chromatic reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are the most several(a) ecosystems in the sea. High diversity density gives rise to intense species contender and the subsequent organism capability to construct exotic defensive and distasteful chemicals, many with pharmacological value (Adey 2000). It is estimated that less than ten percent of reef biodiversity is menstruumly known, and only a small fraction of that percentage has been time-tested for active compounds. However, coral reefs face numerous hazards and threats, both natural and anthropogenic. watercourse estimates note that ten percent of all coral reefs are fast beyond recovery. Thirty percent are in critical take and may die within ten to twenty years. Experts predict that if current pressures are allowed to continue unabated, sixty percent of the worlds coral reefs may die completely by 2050 (Hazards to Coral Reefs). Many species that follow only in coral reef ecosystems willing likely run low extinct in the coming decades, and the pharmacological potential that these species hold will be lost forever.Most of the drugs in use today provoke come from nature. Three common examples include aspirin, morphine, and penicillin. In the old long time you could wander around a corn field or up in a forest, take little dirt samples, bring them indorse to the laband what do you know? Youd found microorganisms that produce streptomycin, or actinomycin, or... ...icles/june_03/marine_pharmacology.pdfHazards to Coral Reefs. 18 Jan. 2004. NOAA. .Kerr, Russell, Drugs from the Sea Will the Next Penicillin Come from a Sponge?. .Marine Pharmaceuticals. .Mestel, Rosie. Drugs from the Sea. Discover March 1999.Rayl, A.J.S. Oceans Medicine Chests of the Future? The Scientist 27 Sept. 1999. .---. Reaping Pharmacological Benefits from the Oceans. The Scientist 11 Oct. 1999. .Small, A., Adey, W., and Spoon, D., 1998, Are Current Estimates of Coral Reef Biodiversity in any case Low? The View Through the Window of a Microcosm. Atoll. Research Bulletin, 458, 1-20.