ECOL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Extinction Event, Folklore In Hawaii, Habitat Destruction

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: Ecology
• Course: ECOL 1000
• Professor: Scott Connelly

Document Summary

Chemical weapons produced by plants were once the primary form of healthcare and inspiration for new drugs (e. g. aspirin, codeine, hypertension drugs ). Western medicine has often replaced natural sources and inspiration for medicines with pharmacology and lab-based chemistry. International trade in medicinal plants topped billion in 2011. The number of species on an island is determined by the balance between its rates of immigration (colonization) and extinction. The equilibrium number for each island occurs where the two lines cross. Prostatin did not work, as hoped, to fight cancer. However, the mamala tree turned out to be a good species to protect and research further. Extracts from the boiled bark produced the new drug prostatin . It is now proving to be a potentially valuable weapon against hiv. The drug will likely be marketed soon, with half of the proceeds going to the samoans.