Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7656

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Goeschl T.
Stakes in the evolutionary race: The economic value of plants for medicinal applications
Journal of Herbs Spices and Medicinal Plants 2002; 9:(4):373-388

Abstract:

According to estimates, biologically active compounds derived from plants are-directly or indirectly-at the basis of between a quarter and half of all prescription drugs sold in the world. This implies that medicinal plants have generated considerable economic value for society in the past. The theme of this paper is to explore the likely economic values of plants for medicinal applications in the future. These values arise predominantly from the potential of plants to provide templates for solutions to medical problems not yet or imperfectly solved at present. This situates the question of economic values of plants for medicinal purposes in the context of pharmaceutical R&D. Studies that have attempted to ascertain these values in R&D are then surveyed and the significant diversity in their results is discussed. What gives the paper its title is that these studies generally assume that solutions once found will work forever. For one of the most important areas of medicinal applications, infectious diseases, this is not true. There, humanity is engaged in an evolutionary race with pathogens that render solutions ineffective over time. Plant-derived biologically active compounds are stakes in this race, promising to provide solutions for problems whose nature is unknown at present. The evolutionary character of this race has significant implications for the valuation of plants for medicinal applications by both the pharmaceutical industry and society at large.