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Abstract
The 8th annual Colombian Congress of Pharmacology and Therapeutics - 1st International Symposium on Biodiversity as a Source of New Medicines was held on August 16-19, 2001 in Cali, Colombia.
The Congress, which was divided into three sections - Pharmacotherapeutics, Immunopharmacology, and Biodiversity as a Source of New Medicines - was attended by 800 people from all five continents and a wide range of backgrounds, and included, among others, physicians, engineers, chemists, pharmacists, business managers, biologists, and students.
Joining Forces
This conference was intended to encourage the joining of Western culture and medicine with traditional practices performed by honored wise men of the indigenous Colombian communities (better known as Taitas) to, in a "knowledge dialogue among pairs," search for the solution to the problems faced by the Colombian people. Particularly in rural areas of Colombia, in addition to health problems, there is poverty, high costs of modern Western medical services and drugs, only partial social security and health service coverage, low income, and illicit drug farming for immediate cash, with displacement and violence.
The conference also aimed to open two-way communication channels between the traditional doctors and higher learning centers in Colombia. This will allow the study and validation of plants, fungi, and animals that are used in traditional medical practice, and the possible isolation of active principles, in addition to the promotion, discussion, and adoption of protection and recognition of the intellectual property rights, which will ensure fair recognition of the "traditional knowledge."
Medicines of Plant Origin
Of the brand medicines available in the Western market, up to 35% might be of vegetal origin, although these medicines are derived from only <0.1% of known vegetal species. Therefore, the field to be investigated is huge, even without considering the search for new sources of food, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, alternative energy sources, and raw materials. For many different reasons, including both cultural and economical, 75% of the world's population depends on medicines synthesized from vegetal sources. Colombia, with only 0.7% of the planet landmass, possesses ∼15% of the world's total biodiversity. This richness, existing in the forests, jungles, and thermal floors of Colombia, represents potential for development. The sustainable exploitation of biodiversity is, for all Colombians, an incalculable source of opportunities, and constitutes an immediately possible enterprise.
Indeed, multinational pharmaceutical companies assign a significant portion of their technical, financial, and human resources to bioprospection in the world's jungles. Because of this situation, and the need to legislate all aspects related to the identification of new molecules, the conference also covered subjects such as indigenous communities' rights, biopiracy, and biodiversity economics.
Simultaneously, novel treatments of cardiovascular, endocrine, infectious, and degenerative diseases were discussed, in addition to the latest developments in malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer vaccines, and developments in gene therapy and uses of the human genome.
Traditional Doctors Honored
Within the biodiversity program, the satellite symposium "The Yage Culture: The Thinking of the Elders" took place, and was attended by the traditional doctors of five of the Indian tribes of the Amazones (Siona, Cofan, Coreguaje, Kamtza, and Inga), who wrote the Code of Ethics of the Indigenous Doctors from the Colombian Amazones. The UMIYAC (Union de Medicos Indigenas de la Amazonia Colombiana) Great Council members, formed by the three eldest and honored Taitas, Fernando Mendúa, Laureano Becerra, and Francisco Piaguaje, received on behalf of all the traditional doctors of the 82 Colombian ethnic groups an honorable mention by the Universidad del Valle in recognition of their work as preservers of traditional culture and medical practices (figure 1). At the same time, they were paid homage by the Valle Department provincial government, in recognition of their role in the preservation of biodiversity through the use of environmental non-predatory agricultural practices.
A Positive Future?
The conference accomplished its initial objectives, and subsequently there has been great interest, from the general community, in this subject. Furthermore, working parties, comprising physicians, chemists, pharmacists, engineers, agronomists, entrepreneurs and investors, have formed with the purpose of backing the creation of business that includes the different aspects of research and production, not only of medicines but essential oils, nutraceuticals, perfumes and raw materials. Indeed, this congress marked a landmark in the Colombian natural products research initiative.
Andrzej Krauze is an illustrator, poster maker, cartoonist, and painter who illustrates regularly for HMS Beagle, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, Bookseller, and New Statesman.
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