TENS OF thousands of plant species worldwide are used by people for a wide variety of purposes. Plants are a major source of food, fuel, fibre, oil, herbs, spices and forage. Many modern medicines have originated from plants; in the tropics alone, an estimated 25,000-30,000 plant species have been used in traditional medicines. Thousands of plant species are grown as ornamentals in parks, public and private gardens, along streets, and for shade and shelter. Plants also protect watersheds, stabilize slopes, improve soils, moderate climate and provide habitats for much of the world’s wild fauna.
Guyana’s abundant plant life
Guyana is home to an abundance of plant life – approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the land is covered by tropical rainforest much of which is still intact. A typical four square-mile patch of rainforest contains an estimated 1500 species of flowering plants, and 750 species of trees.
Hundreds of plant species found in Guyana are used for food, shelter, medicine and raw materials for the manufacture of goods. Having a tropical climate, over 6500 species of plants have been identified in our country. Exotic orchids, Heliconias and other flowering plants grow in wild abandon, including the Victoria Regia Lily (Victoria amazonica) – the largest of the giant lilies and Guyana’s national flower.
Many of the plant species found in Guyana’s forests are being used for making medicines both locally and internationally. Almost any ailment can be treated locally by ‘bush medicine’, which includes fever grass, daisy, granny backbone, and capadula among others. One of the many local contributions to modern-day science comes from curare, a paralytic plant-derived poison that the indigenous people have used for centuries in their hunting and fishing activities. In strong quantities, this substance can cause death by asphyxiation, by paralyzing muscles needed to breathe. This is now being used in muscle relaxants and anaesthesia. In addition to this, Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant, Periwinkle, is one of the world’s most powerful anticancer drugs which has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukaemia since its discovery.
The healthy crops produced by Guyana earned this country the title, ‘Breadbasket of the Caribbean’. Major food crops grown on a large scale include rice, sugarcane, cassava, banana, plantain, eddoes, pineapple and a wide variety of citrus and vegetables — pumpkin, calaloo, boulanger, cabbage, bora, ochro, coconuts, limes, among others. Although Guyana has a very rich plant diversity, many of it remains undiscovered because of the remoteness of significantly large portions of our rainforest. Discovery of some of these plant species may lead to complete cure and eradication of some of the world’s most devastating illnesses.
Quick Facts
• 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources in the rainforest.
• An estimated 137 plant, animal and insect species die every day because of rainforest deforestation. That’s about 50,000 species per year!
• 80% of the developed world’s diet originated in the tropical rainforest.
• 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources; only 1% has been tested so far.
• Over 100 pharmaceutical companies, and several branches of the US government, including giants like Merck and The National Cancer Institute, are engaged in plant research projects for possible drugs and cures for viruses, infections, cancer and even AIDS.
• U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five per cent of the active ingredients in today’s cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
• Rainforests support over half of our plants, wild plants and trees and one-half of the world’s wildlife. Tropical rainforests are the world’s oldest ecosystems.
• Rainforests also play a role in recycling the earth’s water, as moisture is absorbed by the trees and evaporated into the atmosphere to return as rainfall. Without it, streams can disappear during the dry season, and deprive human populations of water. This is already happening in parts of Africa – 25% of the world’s species could be lost by the end of this decade.
You can share ideas and questions by sending letters to: ‘Our Earth, Our Environment’, C/o EIT Division, Environmental Protection Agency, Ganges Street, Sophia, GEORGETOWN or email eit.epaguyana@gmail.com
