Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest [Hardcover]

Christopher Joyce (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0316474088 | ISBN-13: 978-0316474085 | Publication Date: July 1994 | Edition: 1st

Tells the story of the resurgence of the search for new medicines in the world's remaining rain forests. This book looks at recent discoveries, such as a promising new cancer drug called Taxol, and several drugs with potential for the treatment of AIDS.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Joyce (coauthor of Witnesses from the Grave ) here presents not another jeremiad about the disappearing rainforests but a series of case studies and personality profiles of botanists that make the point in more immediate terms, including the First World's most immediate term of all--money, in the form of profits to be made from the latent medicine chest that rings the equator. In this pharmaceutical treasure trove, "biodiversity is run amok," stresses the author. He sets out to explain a "radical experiment" whose goal is "to change the way people search for and test potential new medicines while at the same time preserving the world's great forests by showing how much more valuable they are standing than cut." Joyce credits the reader with having already absorbed some of the basic dimensions of the crisis and with wanting a more sophisticated, mostly botanical view of it. He has just a little time for ethnobotany and shamans, and his treatment of international pharmaceutical market forces is welcome.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

One gains a better understanding of what is at stake with the worldwide destruction of tropical rain forests after reading this authoritative account of the history and present state of medicine-hunting in the New World tropics. In a race against deforestation, scientists travel to the rain forests to collect, inventory, and analyze thousands of unique plant species that might yield new chemical compounds successful in treating cancer and AIDS. Joyce, a science writer and the U.S. editor of New Scientist, profiles individuals involved in tropical research against the backdrop of political turmoil. He also discusses pharmaceutical companies, research funding, and the rights of indigenous people and countries wanting a share of the profits from the products of their forests. For personal accounts of this race against time, see Mark Plotkin's Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice (LJ 8/93) and Rosita Arvigo's Sastun: One Woman's Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer (LJ 4/1/94). For public and academic libraries.
Teresa Elberson, Lafayette P.L., La.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316474088
• ISBN-13: 978-0316474085
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,844,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Book that Has Not Aged Well, January 31, 2004

By 

Jessica Ferguson "threelittlebirds" (Woodbury, NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest (Hardcover)

Most of the problem with this book is not the fault of the author but of the passage of time. While Earthly Goods was most likely right on target for 1994, when it was published, ten years later it is outdated but does not, unfortunately, read like a history. (Shaman Pharmaceuticals, for example, seems like a promising enterprise in this book. I thought I might check out their stock. They are bankrupt and have regrouped as Shaman Botanicals with only one product in their line, as far as I can tell. Stock is OTCBB at $0.002 as of today.)

Joyce's writing is dry and often times fairly technical leaving a layman reader like myself in the dark and, more importantly, skipping to the next paragraph. Readers with a specific interest in botany and pharmaceutical derivatives in plants may still find some of the information of value but it does not qualify as a good introduction for those without prior knowledge of the field.

Although I had high-hopes for this book, a revised edition where these stories are anthologized and recent findings and updates are discussed would have been much more useful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful, Pompous Writing, January 7, 2006

By 

Justin M. Teerlinck - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest (Hardcover)

In a book where rum is described as "bottles of sugar cane alcohol and "a shirtless, glossy black man" provides a typical description of the non-descript, I had a hard time staying awake to slog through 200 odd pages of extraneous verbal diarrhea to get to 10 pages of fascinating stories.

There were a few interesting tid bits in here--especially regarding the early research done in the rainforests but Joyce wastes so many words describing peoples' hair or the pointless politics of company board meetings at MERCK. The rainforest is left looking like a snake ridden mud-hole that adventurous, sweaty westerners have to hack through in order to acheive various goals.

The overriding message is that the people who do this are real "characters." A few of them are, but that is beside the point. Much of the time, it feels like you're reading a glossed over, shallow news article without any depth and that these "characters'" resumes and educational backgrounds are more familiar than their stories.

There are better written, more interesting books about both plants and people.

5.0 out of 5 stars Earthly Goods, September 29, 2011

By 

Isabelle5 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest (Hardcover)

I have read this book a couple of times and I've sent copied to several people in my family. I think it has a broad range of information, both historical and present day. I am always interested by how our world gives us the things we need and it's heart rending and anxiety producing to realize that places are being destroyed before we even explore what they might offer to science.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in how flora and fauna provide powerful medicines. The lowly Vinca, for example, has given us 2 very powerful anti cancer drugs.

Imc