Steps for discovery of a lead candidate medicinal agent from a natural source

1. Selection, collection, and identification of an organism
2. Preparation and evaluation of an extract in an array of invitro test systems
3. Priortization of the plants to be further studied
4. Bioactivity - directed fractionation (fractionation - separate into components)
5. Structure determination of the active isotopes

Different methods for plant selection in searching for new biological agents

1. random - take any and all plants from a specific area
2. taxonomic - take plants of a predetermined interesting taxa
3. chemotaxonomic - search for plants likely to produce related compounds
4. information managed - plants of proven biological activity with unknown active agents
5. ethomedical - look for clinical, oral, or written information on plant
6. serendipity - looking for one thing you find another

Possibility of Commercial Exploitation

As stated in Chemistry of the Amazon, "commercial exploitation of natural products... may be the only way to preserve this havitat and avoid its destruction by local inhabitants in search of conditions for survival  or by commercial enterprises after a short to medium term gain."  In other words, one way of protecting the rainforest would be to make it profitable to do so.  It is far easier and more certain to refer to people's pocket books than to their hearts.  If we can make saving the rainforest profitable, then success will be far more probable.

Possible sources of revenue from Amazonian plants include food, cosmetics, drugs, dyes, herbicides, insecticides, and fragrances.  Could also marked them as "exotic" rainforest coulds and play to the notion that anything natural is better, that anything exotic has more appeal.  When researching for drugs or other products, it is important to consider how the new steps are taken and what their impact is.  It is useless to obtain a new drug while destroying the environment it comes from.  Scientists are looking to make extracts from plants and microorganisms, as it is not as easy to synthesize new drugs as had previously been expected.  Many plants contain biologically important lead structures, which has led to an increase in research into Amazon plants.  Often these compounds posess structures "yet to be synthesized or even imagined by traditional organic chemists.

It is important to examine the genetic aspect, not just specific compounds reduced.  If you can find the gene responsible for the action you desire - and can clone it - then there is no more need to affect the environment of the plant.  Of course succeeding in doing this might make people less likely to wish to preserve the environment, so it's uncertain which would be the better way to go.

 The Amazon rainforest is incredibly diverse, and many plants are from their are already used medicinally.  Very little is currently know and lest than 15% of the terrestrial plants have been studied for more than one trait.  Unfortunately, researching for medicine is incredibly expensive and it takes a long time (over a decade in most cases) to even produce something that is marketable, let alone produce a profit.  Brazil doesn't have the money to sink into such a project, requires the introduction of outside companies.  There is a huge untapped potential there, but I cannot tell how to use it.  However, making conservation appeal economically is the way to go, it we can figure out how to do it.

One possibility might be to look to the information of the indigenous peoples.  Their medicine is based on the plants of the Amazon and they have information about the uses for different plants already.  This could at least make it easier to identify what plants require closer study.  Also, if the indegenous people could patent their information (as currently it is being used to profit companies without profiting them at all), it would be a needed source of income.

References

Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin. Edited by Michael E. McClain, Reynaldo Victoria, and Jeffrey E. Richey
Oxford University Press. 2001

Chemistry of the Amazon: Biodiversity, Natural Products, and Environmental Issues
 Peter Rudolf Seidl, Otto Richard Gottlieb and Maria Auxiliadora Coelho Kaplan (Eds.)
ACS Symposium Series No 588. 1995