Biodiversity, traditional medicine and public health: where do they meet?

Given the increased use of traditional medicines, possibilities that would ensure its successful integration into a public health framework should be explored. This paper discusses some of the links between biodiversity and traditional medicine, and addresses their implications to public health. We explore the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services to global and human health, the risks which human impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity present to human health and welfare

Brazilian coral reefs in a period of global change: A synthesis

Abstract Brazilian coral reefs form structures significantly different from the well-known reef models, as follows: (i) they have a growth form of mushroom-shaped coral pinnacles called "chapeirões", (ii) they are built by a low diversity coral fauna rich in endemic species, most of them relic forms dating back to the Tertiary, and (iii) the nearshore bank reefs are surrounded by siliciclastic sediments. The reefs are distributed in the following four major sectors along the Brazilian coast: the northern, the northeastern and the eastern regions, and the oceanic islands, but certain isolated coral species can be found in warmer waters in embayments of the southern region. There are different types of bank reefs, fringing reefs, isolated "chapeirões" and an atoll present along the Brazilian coast. Corals, milleporids and coralline algae build the rigid frame of the reefs. The areas in which the major coral reefs occur correspond to regions in which nearby urban centers are experiencing accelerated growth, and tourism development is rapidly increasing. The major human effects on the reef ecosystem are mostly associated with the increased sedimentation due to the removal of the Atlantic rainforest and the discharge of industrial and urban effluents. The effects of the warming of oceanic waters that had previously affected several reef areas with high intensity coral bleaching had not shown, by the time of the 2010 event, any episodes of mass coral mortality on Brazilian reefs

Total syntheses of tambjamines C, E, F, G, H, I and J, BE-18591, and a related alkaloid from the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata

The acetate salts of tambjamines C, E, and F (2-4, respectively), as well as those of the related alkaloids BE-18591 (5) and 6, have been prepared by treatment of bipyrrole aldehyde 16 with the relevant amine in the presence of acetic acid. The 5′-bromc-analogue, 30, of compound 16 has also been prepared and used to obtain the acetate salts of tambjamines G, H, I, and J (8-11 respectively)

Four new bioactive polybrominated diphenyl ethers of the sponge Dysidea herbacea from West Sumatra, Indonesia

The marine sponge Dysidea herbacea collected from Indonesia yielded four new polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners 2-5 and the known derivatives 1, 6, and 7. The structures of the new compounds were unambiguously established on the basis of NMR spectroscopic (1H, 13C, COSY, 1H-detected direct and long-range 13C-1H correlations) and mass spectrometric (EIMS) data. All of the compounds were active against the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and the phytopathogenic fungus Cladosporium cucumerinum. The isolated polybrominated compounds were also active in the brine shrimp lethality test. In the latter bioassay, compounds 1 and 6 were the most active with LC50's of 0.96 [SE +/- 0.19] and 0.94 [SE +/- 0.70] microg/mL, respectively