14 DAY TRIAL // People would do anything to protect their health. They spare no efforts in treating their illnesses, not even when their actions are at the environment's expense. The pharmaceutical industry represents the main threat for the Himalayan yew tree, which is used to manufacture Taxol, a treatment that fights cancer.
Experts stated that this particular tree population faces tremendous risks, due to its overwhelming exploitation. Despite the fact that the medicinal tree was added on the IUCN Red List due to the fact that it is now considered “endangered,” its presence is still a great hope for the individuals diagnosed with cancer.
The mitotic inhibitor used in chemotherapy was discovered and implemented in the U.S. National Cancer Institute program at the Research Triangle Institute in 1967.
Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani succeeded in isolating it from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia, so they came up with a proper name: taxol.
It started being used on a large commercial scale and the generic name was changed to paclitaxel. The BMS compound is sold under the trademark TAXOL.
It is currently used in treating patients with lung, ovarian, head, neck and throat cancer.
Scientists say that it is a fact that the manufacturing of this chemotherapy drug triggers the death of already critically vulnerable trees, but they also provide a solution which would protect the remaining population, while also taking care of the fate of ill people and the profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry.
The substance could be extracted from clippings, therefore a proper management of the medicinal population could control the alarming phenomenon.
Also, IUCN representatives think it is possible to protect the wild populations while growing trees in cultivation.
“There are 380,000 species of plants named and described, with about 2,000 being added to the list every year. At Kew we estimate one in five of these are likely to be under threat of extinction right now, before we even factor in the impacts of climate change,” according to Tim Entwisle from the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The authorities are trying to highlight the gravity of the present situation, taking into account that, the governments have to scale up their efforts to improve the condition of several plants and animals which are considered critically endangered.
This is what they committed to achieve, throughout a 10-year conservation project announced during the biodiversity summit in Japan, in 2010.