Protecting Biodiversity to Save Medicine: A Global Challenge

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 16: Scientists have warned that humans around the world could lose up to half of their future medicines, as many plant species face extinctions. 

According to what scientists have concluded, about half of all flowering plants are at risk, numbering more than 100 thousand, while it is believed that about 77 percent of all plants that have not yet been described by science are at risk. Some of these plants become extinct between the time they are discovered and the time they are catalogued, which takes about 16 years on average. The main reason for these extinctions is habitat loss, such as deforestation or building dams that flood river areas, according to what was published by Al Arabiya. net”. 

Conservation analyst Dr Matilda Brown, who is among the researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who published these findings in their latest report on the state of the world’s plants and fungi, said climate change is “certainly on the horizon”, but it is difficult to Very measured as a threat. 

Scientists are calling for all newly described species to be treated as threatened unless proven otherwise. 

Dr. Brown explained: “We are looking at more than 100,000 species threatened with extinction. This is more than the total number of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and all our vertebrates combined; and when we take into account that nine out of ten of our medicines come from plants, what “We could potentially face losing up to half of all our future medicines, so this is not just a big number for plants, it’s a big number in terms of potential impacts on humanity.” 

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