Humanity faces losing around half of all future medicines because so many plants face extinction, according to a new report.
Nearly half of all flowering plants on Earth are threatened – some 100,000.
As most medicines are based on plant compounds, scientists estimate that because 45 per cent of flowering plants are endangered, it means humans potentially risk losing a large potential source of future medicines.
The findings are contained in The State of the World’s Plants and Fungi, a major report by scientists at Kew.
The Kew scientists also warn that many plants are going extinct before they have even been discovered. They estimate that three out of four plants yet undiscovered by science are at risk.
Scientists estimate that humans potentially risk losing a large source of future medicines as 45 per cent of flowering plants are endangered (Stock Image)
This is based on the estimate that of the 2,500 new plants discovered each year, on average, three quarters are immediately classified as at risk of extinction, suggesting that future discoveries will be equally threatened.
Conservation analyst Dr Matilda Brown said: ‘We’re looking at over 100,000 [plant] species that are threatened – that’s more than the total number of species of mammals
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