Brazil sees profit in frog slimeMay 30th, 2006 by Roy Berman |
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Katukina says he possesses a treasure that could be at the cutting edge of biotechnology. If a plan initiated by the chief is successful, his tribe’s fortunes will be transformed by an asset that he and the Brazilian government say holds great promise for the global pharmaceutical industry: the slime from a poisonous tree frog.Tribal shamans have used the slime as an ancestral remedy to treat illness, pain, even laziness. The crucial ingredients are compounds with anesthetic, tranquilizing and other medicinal properties.
Scientists say the promise lies in isolating peptides from the frog’s slime and then reproducing them for medicines to treat hypertension, stroke, and other illnesses
June 3rd, 2006 at 5:16 am
That’s funny… not because the note but because this is my sort of work. Yes, I’m working with frog ’s slime to make drugs out of them. Remarkable rewarding for the biological point of view. Money ? No, we never get money out of that…big companies do but not scientists. So good as that is the possibiliy to (giving a real value for those piece of our biodiversity) prove that conservation is really important…also in the economical side (the usually take in to account…)