#bioprospecting

[bumblebeeappletree]

Medicines and cosmetics use substances derived from nature. But Bioprospecting can turn into biopiracy. More and more companies are patenting natural ingredients making billions. It can come at a cost to the environment and traditional communities living in biodiversity-rich regions.

Credits:

Reporter: Louise Osborne

Video Editor: David Jacobi

Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Biopiracy #Colonialism

Read more:

European Patent Office accepts biopiracy argument and revokes patent: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/2...

World Intellectual Property Organization: Leveraging economic growth through benefit sharing: https://www.wipo.int/ipadvantage/en/d...

The Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing: https://www.cbd.int/abs/

Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library: http://www.tkdl.res.in/tkdl/langdefau...

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:45 How It Began

02:28 Patently Questionable

05:25 Exploitation of Nature

07:12 Ethical Biotrade

08:38 Taking to the High Seas

10:50 The Road Ahead

[bpod-bpod]

Drugs on Ice

As well as causing unpleasant infections that make us sick, bacteria can also help to make us well again. Several species of bacteria produce chemicals that have been turned into drugs such as antibiotics and cancer treatments. This has led to an activity known as bioprospecting – scouring the natural world in search of new bacterial species that might produce potent novel drugs for all kinds of conditions. The more unusual the conditions, the stranger the bacteria that live there and the more interesting the molecules that they produce. There are few places on earth as strange as Antarctica, with its extreme cold, high saltiness and lack of human interference. These plates contain colonies of Actinobacteria isolated from Antarctic hair grass – one of only two flowering plants native to the frozen continent. Some of them make molecules that could be promising cancer drugs, which can be taken forward for testing.

Written by Kat Arney

Image adapted from work by Leonardo Jose Silva and colleagues

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) – Embrapa Environment, Jaguariúna, SP, Brazil

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in Scientific Reports, August 2020

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[parentsnevertoldus]

The Ayahuasca Privilege: Can We Put a Price on Healing? - DoubleBlind

Ayahuasca may be incredibly healing—but most people can't afford it.

The prohibitive cost of ayahuasca ceremonies is a result of biopiracy, the commercial exploitation of or monopolization over biological material like medicinal plant extracts without compensating the indigenous peoples or countries from which the material or relevant knowledge is obtained. This capitalist exploitation often takes the form of patenting the organisms or knowledge in a way that restricts use and takes away access by indigenous practitioners.  

Doing this can deplete natural reserves of the species, cause the extinction of endemic living organisms, privatizes cultural practices, and restricts access to cultural identities and practices while giving access to those privileged enough to pay for it. This is essentially another form of colonialism--formerly colonized countries continue to be exploited for their cultural resources, which exacerbates power inequalities between wealthy colonizing countries and industrializing ex-colonies. 

[slovarchzine]

‘Antarctica Bioprospecting station’ by Lenka Petrak

source

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[dr-afsaeed]

Wringing everything out with bioprospecting - Microbiology Research

Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 09 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01270-y This Genome Watch discusses the great biosynthetic capacity that has been identified in marine environmental and host-associated microbiomes, along with approaches to facilitate research into these diverse and resource-rich microbial communities. Read more about this post… Credits: Source Disclaimer

[spiwhit]

Bioprospeksi (Bioprospecting): Sekilas

Bioprospeksi merupakan pencarian secara sistematis senyawa biokimia, informasi genetik, dan pengetahuan lokal yang terdapat di alam dengan tujuan mengembangkannya sebagai produk yang bernilai dalam bidang farmasi, pertanian, kosmetik, pangan, dan bidang lainnya. Langkah-langkah dalam bioprospeksi dapat dilakukan dengan koleksi sampel baik yang berada di darat maupun laut, kemudian dilakukan…

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[nmadhavan]

The treasure inside beer lost in a shipwreck 120 years ago

Long-forgotten yeast strains are being sought out from shipwrecks, abandoned breweries and other locations in the hope they could be put to good use if resurrected.

A cargo ship that sank in 1895 off the Scottish coast following a collision with another vessel in heavy fog. The ship had thousands of bottles of alcoholic beverages aboard. The beer bottles retrieved were handed to scientists at a research firm were able to extract live yeast from the liquid inside three of the bottles. They then used that yeast in an attempt to recreate the original beer. It is just one example of a growing field of research among brewers and other fermenters of liquids who are seeking forgotten strains of yeast in the hope they can be put to good use. That means hunting for them in old bottles found on shipwrecks, scouring ancient pots, and collecting samples from ruined distilleries where fabled strains may yet linger. This kind of search is called bioprospecting and resurrecting historic yeasts could have many applications, from cleaning up pollution to assisting in the production of aromas for the perfume industry.