THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508040025
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
The early physicians were all botanists whose drugs came from plants.
Even today, says Lytton J. Musselman, eminent professor of biological sciences at Old Dominion University, a fourth of all prescriptions in the United States contain materials derived from plants. Countless other drugs now synthesized in labs were discovered in plants.
Quinine, used to treat malaria, comes from the bark of the cinchona tree; digitalis, used to regulate heart beats, comes from the foxglove; and as was recently noted in this paper, aspirin was derived from the bark of the willow tree. (For centuries peasants chewed willow twigs to dull pain, though scientists only recently discovered how aspirin works.)
Given all the uses plants have been put to - as fuel, food, shelter, medicine and so on - Professor Musselman is shocked when environmentalists are described as anti-people.
``What a lot of rubbish that is,'' said Musselman, who specializes in ways people use plants, particularly in the Far East and Africa. ``It's unbelievable.''
Of prime concern to him and others is the rapid rate at which species are becoming extinct. According to a United Nations environmental report in 1992, one quarter of Earth's remaining species are in danger of extinction in the next 20 to 30 years because of human activity and 100 to 300 species become extinct each day.
``Humans are violating the first rule of tinkering,'' Musselman said. That rule states, ``Save all the parts.''
``When you are destroying plants that have never been described and never been studied,'' Musselman said, ``you are destroying potential sources of drugs and medicines.''
Environmentalist has become a dirty word among conservatives. It should be honorable.
Granted, the environmental movement, like every other well-meaning movement, has had its share of crazies. But the environmentalists' efforts to preserve Nature, of which humans are part, should be applauded.
The next time you take an aspirin to relieve a headache, remember the willow tree and dream of drugs yet to be discovered from plants. The nightmare is species made extinct before their value is known.
The early physicians were all botanists whose drugs came from plants.
Even today, says Lytton J. Musselman, eminent professor of biological sciences at Old Dominion University, a fourth of all prescriptions in the United States contain materials derived from plants. Countless other drugs now synthesized in labs were discovered in plants.
Quinine, used to treat malaria, comes from the bark of the cinchona tree; digitalis, used to regulate heart beats, comes from the foxglove; and as was recently noted in this paper, aspirin was derived from the bark of the willow tree. (For centuries peasants chewed willow twigs to dull pain, though scientists only recently discovered how aspirin works.)
Given all the uses plants have been put to - as fuel, food, shelter, medicine and so on - Professor Musselman is shocked when environmentalists are described as anti-people.
``What a lot of rubbish that is,'' said Musselman, who specializes in ways people use plants, particularly in the Far East and Africa. ``It's unbelievable.''
Of prime concern to him and others is the rapid rate at which species are becoming extinct. According to a United Nations environmental report in 1992, one quarter of Earth's remaining species are in danger of extinction in the next 20 to 30 years because of human activity and 100 to 300 species become extinct each day.
``Humans are violating the first rule of tinkering,'' Musselman said. That rule states, ``Save all the parts.''
``When you are destroying plants that have never been described and never been studied,'' Musselman said, ``you are destroying potential sources of drugs and medicines.''
Environmentalist has become a dirty word among conservatives. It should be honorable.
Granted, the environmental movement, like every other well-meaning movement, has had its share of crazies. But the environmentalists' efforts to conserve Nature, of which humans are part, should be applauded.
The next time you take an aspirin to relieve a headache, remember the willow tree and dream of drugs yet to be discovered from plants. The nightmare is species made extinct before their value is known. by CNB