4 research outputs found
Biopiracy <i>versus </i>one-world medicine – from colonial relicts to global collaborative concepts
Background: Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism.Hypothesis: : The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe.Study design: Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written. Legislative initiatives of the United Nations culminated in the Nagoya protocol aim to protect traditional knowledge and regulate benefit-sharing with indigenous communities. The European community adopted the Nagoya protocol, and the corresponding regulations will be implemented into national legislation among the member states. Despite pleasing progress, infrastructural problems of the health care systems in developing countries still remain. Current approaches to secure primary health care offer only fragmentary solutions at best. Conventional medicine from industrialized countries cannot be afforded by the impoverished population in the Third World. Confronted with exploding costs, even health systems in Western countries are endangered to burst. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular among the general public in industrialized countries, although the efficacy is not sufficiently proven according to the standards of evidence-based medicine. CAM is often available without prescription as over-the-counter products with non-calculated risks concerning erroneous self-medication and safety/toxicity issues. The concept of integrative medicine attempts to combine holistic CAM approaches with evidence-based principles of conventional medicine.Conclusion: To realize the concept of One-World Medicine, a number of standards have to be set to assure safety, efficacy and applicability of traditional medicine, e.g. sustainable production and quality control of herbal products, performance of placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trials, phytovigilance, as well as education of health professionals and patients
Antagonistic effect of alkaloids and saponins on bioactivity in the quinine tree (Rauvolfia caffra
Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice
Background: Biopiracy mainly focuses on the use of biological resources and/or knowledge of indigenous
tribes or communities without allowing them to share the revenues generated out of economic exploitation
or other non-monetary incentives associated with the resource/knowledge.
Methods: Based on collaborations of scientists from five continents, we have created a communication
platform to discuss not only scientific topics, but also more general issues with social relevance. This
platform was termed ‘PhytCancer -Phytotherapy to Fight Cancer’ (www.phyt-cancer.uni-mainz.de). As a
starting point, we have chosen the topic “biopiracy”, since we feel this is of pragmatic significance for
scientists working with medicinal plants.
Results: It was argued that the patenting of herbs or natural products by pharmaceutical corporations
disregarded the ownership of the knowledge possessed by the indigenous communities on how these
substances worked. Despite numerous court decisions in U.S.A. and Europe, several international treaties,
(e.g. from United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, the African Unity and
others), sharing of a rational set of benefits amongst producers (mainly pharmaceutical companies) and
indigenous communities is yet a distant reality. In this paper, we present an overview of the legal frameworks,
discuss some exemplary cases of biopiracy and bioprospecting as excellent forms of utilization of
natural resources.
Conclusions: We suggest certain perspectives, by which we as scientists, may contribute towards prevention
of biopiracy and also to foster the fair utilization of natural resources. We discuss ways, in which the
interests of indigenous people especially from developing countries can be securedDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/[GRK2015/1]//AlemaniaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET