San Ramon May House Plants Able to Cure Malaria.

In San Ramon, in Costa Rica’s Alajuela province, a team of 11 experts collected 50 plants in the Alberto Manuel Brenes Reserve (RAMB), and found than some could provide a cure against Malaria. This amazing discovery has given some renewed enthusiasm and passion to the researchers, who had been working on this project with the aim of finding plants with given characteristics that could can fight against this disease.

Although not very common in Costa Rica, malaria costs the lives of over 200 million persons each year throughout the world. A remedy for this dreadful disease would therefore be miraculous. The two plants found to provide the necessary compounds belong to the Asteraceae and Meliaceae family, according to the director of the UCIMED (Research Department at the University of Medical Sciences), who would not however give any more details in this early stage of the discovery.

Natives of the Amazon forest as well as people in Africa have used certain plants of the Miliaceae family to combat high fevers. Research about such plants in Costa Rica started about one and a half years ago. This country’s amazing biodiversity makes it a perfect candidate for those seeking natural remedies; rain forests are the natural pharmacies of the world. Out of the 50 plants collected, two were selected in particular and are the main focus of the study.

The roots, leaves, flowers and fruits are being analyzed in order to see how they react when in contact with the disease. Once the compound that reacted against Malaria has been separated, it will then go through further analysis to find out exactly what in them causes this reaction.

The UCIMED has basic equipment to deal with this kind analysis but should it become more precise, the final stages would be done in a specialized laboratory elsewhere. This project could result in a major medical breakthrough. The RAMB, which encompasses nearly 20,000 acres of Costa Rica Land, was chosen because of the biodiversity it possesses and the familiarity of these plants due to a complete up to date inventory.

Rain forests provide us with cures for many fatal diseases that have plagued us for centuries, yet they are still being destroyed around the world. The problem appears to be economical, yet, it has been studied that the harvesting of sustainable resources such as medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils and other resources such as rubber, chocolate and gum can yield more profits than lumber and farmland. Landowners and governments, as well as those living in the forests, should be made aware of these alternatives, where instead unsustainable harvesting is the main practice, with the cutting of trees for timber, cattle and agriculture.

Indeed rainforest land has more economic value than if timber is harvested or cut and burnt down. The rain forests provide us with the oxygen we need to live, and clean up the mess we make in the atmosphere, they give us medicine and food, so why are we not protecting them, especially when they are also beneficial economically. It is always due to the greed of some developers and short-sightedness of government authorities that such destruction takes place, and we are in effect destroying what is protecting and keeping us alive.

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Filed under: Costa Rican Wildlife on September 12th, 2008