Editing Economics of biodiversity (section)

==Medicine==
{{Main article|Biodiversity and drugs}}
Biodiversity plays a vital role in the maintenance of human [[health]] and a wide variety of products derived from plants, animals, and fungi are used in medicine. Biodiversity acts as a source of medicinal compounds, impacts the provision of ecosystem services that improve health and protect against disease, and as an inspiration for biomedical techniques that could be utilised to cure diseases (such as [[CRISPR/Cas9]]).<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last1=Linhares |first1=Yuliya |last2=Kaganski |first2=Alexander |last3=Agyare |first3=Christian |last4=Kurnaz |first4=Isil A. |last5=Neergheen |first5=Vidushi |last6=Kolodziejczyk |first6=Bartlomiej |last7=Kędra |first7=Monika |last8=Wahajuddin |first8=Muhammad |last9=El-Youssf |first9=Lahcen |last10=dela Cruz |first10=Thomas Edison |last11=Baran |first11=Yusuf |last12=Pešić |first12=Milica |last13=Shrestha |first13=Uttam |last14=Bakiu |first14=Rigers |last15=Allard |first15=Pierre-Marie |date=2023 |title=Biodiversity: the overlooked source of human health |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2022.12.002 |journal=Trends in Molecular Medicine |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=173–187 |doi=10.1016/j.molmed.2022.12.002 |pmid=36585352 |issn=1471-4914|hdl=10468/14216 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Over 40% of pharmaceutical products are derived from nature, identified through indigenous knowledge and scientific methods, and 70% of all [[cancer]] drugs are natural or bioinspired products.<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |last=Whiting |first=Kate |date=2023-11-23 |title=This is how biodiversity loss impacts medicine and human health |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/11/biodiversity-nature-loss-health-medicine/ |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=World Economic Forum}}</ref> This has significant economic implications. For example, the market for [[traditional medicine]] was predicted to reach a value of $115 billion by the end of 2023.<ref name=":03" />

Wild plant species have been used for medicinal purposes since [[Prehistory|pre-historic times]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Petrovska |first=BiljanaBauer |date=2012 |title=Historical review of medicinal plants′ usage |journal=Pharmacognosy Reviews |language=en |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=1–5 |doi=10.4103/0973-7847.95849 |doi-access=free |issn=0973-7847 |pmc=3358962 |pmid=22654398}}</ref> and over 60% of the world's population still depends on herbal medicine as their primary source of healthcare.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Ahmad Khan |first1=Mohd Sajjad |title=Herbal Medicine |date=2019 |work=New Look to Phytomedicine |pages=3–13 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814619-4.00001-X |access-date=2024-07-22 |publisher=Elsevier |doi=10.1016/b978-0-12-814619-4.00001-x |isbn=978-0-12-814619-4 |last2=Ahmad |first2=Iqbal}}</ref> Some major antimalarial drugs are derived from plants. For example, [[quinine]], derived from the bark of South American ''Cinchona'' trees is used as an anti-malarial.<ref name=":9" /> [[Artemisinin]], another anti-malarial, was isolated from [[Artemisia annua|sweet wormwood]] by [[Tu Youyou]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/summary/ |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> In addition, [[anti-cancer drugs]] like [[Paclitaxel|Taxol]], [[Vincristine]], and [[Vinblastine]] were isolated from plants.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Khazir |first1=Jabeena |last2=Mir |first2=Bilal Ahmad |last3=Pilcher |first3=Lynne |last4=Riley |first4=Darren L. |date=2014 |title=Role of plants in anticancer drug discovery |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phytol.2013.11.010 |journal=Phytochemistry Letters |volume=7 |pages=173–181 |doi=10.1016/j.phytol.2013.11.010 |bibcode=2014PChL....7..173K |hdl=2263/59253 |issn=1874-3900|hdl-access=free }}</ref>