[MPWG] Article: Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the looming Antibiotics Crisis?

[Lindsey Riibe]

NY Times story on Ethnobotany: *Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to
the looming Antibiotics Crisis? One researcher thinks the drugs of the
future might come from the past: botanical treatments long overlooked by
Western medicine.*

LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/magazine/could-ancient-
remedies-hold-the-answer-to-the-looming-antibiotics-
crisis.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=science&module=Ribbon&
version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Science&
pgtype=article

This is an informative story on the roll ethnobotany can play in combating
antibiotic resistance.
Dr. Cassandra Quave believes that inhibitors may be the solution to
antibiotic resistance by cutting down bacteria's most dangerous machinery
without killing them. The story follows her on a botanical expedition.

Here's some information from the story I found particularly interesting and
well written (I especially like the idea of plants as nature's chemical
wizards!):

"No single strategy is likely to be sufficient, but ethnobotany offers a
few distinct advantages. Instead of relying on random screenings of living
creatures — an arbitrary scoop of soil or seawater — it is the only
strategy that benefits from a pre-made guide to some of nature’s most
potent drugs, honed by thousands of years of trial and error in traditional
medicine. And as far as organic drug factories go, it’s difficult to beat
the complexity and ingenuity of plants. Plants are nature’s chemical
wizards."

"Botanical medicine, Quave learned, not only predates civilization — it is
older than humanity itself. Many animals appear to self-medicate with
plants: In Panama, members of the raccoon family known as coatis rub minty
tree resin through their fur to deter fleas, ticks and lice, and some great
apes and monkeys swallow mildly toxic leaves seemingly to fight
infestations of parasitic worms. Our earliest human ancestors continued
such traditions, and until relatively recently, plants were our primary
source of medicine."

"the dominance of modern Western medicine was overwriting vast stores of
knowledge about powerful tonics hidden in surrounding ecosystems. "

"As of 2003, at least 25 percent of modern medicines were derived from
plants, yet only a tiny fraction of the estimated more than 50,000
medicinal plants used around the globe have been studied in the lab."

Also included in the story is a link to the 2016 report:
TACKLING DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS GLOBALLY: FINAL REPORT AND
RECOMMENDATIONS - THE REVIEW ON ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
http://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/160525_Final%20paper_with%20cover.pdf

-- 
Lindsey Riibe
Bureau of Land Management Plant Conservation Program
Plant Conservation Alliance
<http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/fish__wildlife_and/plants/pca.htm>
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