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T HE ROSY PERIWINKLE (CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS ) IS THE SOURCE OF ALKALOID CHEMICALS THAT ARE USED TO TREAT TWO OF THE MOST DEADLY FORMS OF CANCER: HODGKIN’S DISEASE AND ACUTE LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA.
Biological Diversity: T H E O L D E S T H U M A N H E R I T A G E By Edward O. Wilson In the northeastern United States, as in most of the remainder of the country, about one plant species in five is threatened with significant reduction in numbers or even with total extinction. Here are the names of several: New England boneset, Furbish’s lousewort, threadleaf sundew, fairy wand and hairy beardtongue. Many people still ask the vexing question: Of what possible value, except to a few botanists, is a plant with a name like hairy beardtongue? Why should money and effort be spent to save this and other bits of floristic esoterica? Let me tell the ways. Consider periwinkles of the genus Catharanthus, flowering plants that live on Madagascar, a great island off the East Coast of Africa. Inconspicuous in appearance, located all the way around the world, the six species of periwinkles would seem to be even less worthy of attention than beardtongues and louseworts. But one of them, the rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), is the source of alkaloid chemicals vinblastine and vincristine, used to cure two of the most deadly forms of cancer: Hodgkin’s disease, especially dangerous to young adults, and acute lymphocytic leukemia, which, before the periwinkle alkaloids, was a virtual death sentence for young children. These anti-cancer substances are now the basis of an industry earning more than 100 million dollars a year. Ironically, the other five periwinkle species remain largely unexamined for their medical potential. One of them is near extinction due to the destruction of its habitat on Madagascar. On a global scale, one out of ten plant species has been found to contain anti-cancer substances of B i o l o g i c a l 1 D i v e r s i t y
Page 1: Biological Diversity: T H E O L D E
Page 4 and 5: THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW
Page 6 and 7: Copyright © 1999 by The New York S
Page 9 and 10: Preface This book is based on a man
Page 11: Additional information on the activ
Page 15 and 16: some degree of potency. A much high
Page 17 and 18: Some groups of organisms, such as f
Page 19 and 20: to their environment and to one ano
Page 21 and 22: N EW YORK’S BIODIVERSITY IS THREA
Page 23 and 24: 12 10 Number of Butterflies Observe
Page 25 and 26: It is possible that the next hundre
Page 27 and 28: environment. For almost 3 billion y
Page 29 and 30: W ITH ITS WISPINESS AND LIGHT-AND-D
Page 31 and 32: sophisticated microscopic and bioch
Page 33 and 34: The tropical zones generally have a
Page 35 and 36: average as well as greater ecologic
Page 37 and 38: early extinction within the next 30
Page 39 and 40: perished. As the paleontologist Dav
Page 41 and 42: collected in the stream in 1936 and
Page 43 and 44: Systematics, or taxonomy, is at the
Page 45 and 46: Community ecology addresses the man
Page 47 and 48: Biological field stations from four
Page 49 and 50: Biogeography 1 The scientific study
Page 51 and 52: Dispersal In biology, the way a spe
Page 53 and 54: Global warming An increase in the c
Page 55 and 56: Ozone A form of oxygen (O 3 ) that
Page 57 and 58: Termites A group of insects that is
Page 59 and 60: Grifo, Francesca, and J. Rosenthal
Page 61 and 62: diverse and why the threat to that
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Mitchell, Richard S., L. Danaher, a
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9. Is an ecologist the same as a ta
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31. Do you know of a biological res
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B i o l o g i c a l 57 D i v e r s
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THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM IS A PROG
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