 إذا كنت ترى تحث عن حالة تصري أو حالة تصري ، تشعر بكلامي أو كما نحن نقوم بطبع ربي إنها تطبيق ربعي إنها الحقوق الصحيحة طبع ربي يستخدمه بطبع ربي لهم بجانبهم ونحن في حديثنا هناك الكثير من الناس who were very famous for their medicinal history. أعتقد أنه أحد من الأشياء المتحدة. لكنه يستخدمه كهرباء ومدينة. ويستخدمه كهرباء بسيطة ومدينة بسيطة ومدينة بسيطة ومدينة بسيطة. أعتقد أنه أخذت أنه يستخدمه في المنطقة في المنطقة. ويعتقد أنه يستخدمه كهرباء بسيطة ومدينة بسيطة ومدينة بسيطة ومدينة. لكن عندما ترى أحد، هذا هو أعجب. visiting a상을 لحلة وهو تصوت something remarkable, and you admire that plant or flower or whatever it is for all the battle it went through just to bloom and it bloomed for you. That is something fantastic. at the same time you could turn a corner and go down a wadi and you'll see a carpet of stock or maybe sometimes some poppies و ربما يمكن أن يكون ليس المجتمعين فقط و لكن يجب أن يكون يوجد بعض المجتمعين بعض الهواء و بعض المزيد سواء هناك و عندما ترى أن ترى في المجتمع فهي تشفق الامر ولكنه هو عملي كما يقوم بظهر يوجد رقم مرحبا رقم المرحبا و قاموا بأسراء كل one is a jewel because it has been there for goodness knows how long and we hope it will be there for even a longer time but it's how many people are going to benefit from a small sage or a small oregano or thyme or whatever it is you take a look and you say isn't it a wonderful feeling that this can actually happen in this part of the country and that's the reason why I get so upset when people describe the bad year as a desert it is not a desert it is a semi-arid land that means a lot of tender loving care the people you know they are the ones that are using this plant they are the ones that have used this plant for as old as time the other is how can we make sure that this is protected if you like and at the same time not exploited it is a little bit of a let's say a difficult issue but then again there's many solutions I'm sure that can't be put forward the principle of taking something from the bad year and putting something back was really the core issue that helped us to set up what we call the Friends of the Bad Year Fund and the principle is that whoever you are you have taken something out of the bad year isn't it about time to put something back and the way to do that is by contribution we are doing science research in semi-arid land research needs all the support it can get so this is any research that we go into with any of the scientists this is one point that has to be agreed on if this research was to lead to a certain product that writes are reserved and are agreed upon and there's certain legal documents that are signed at the beginning so I think it clears the way for everybody of course we want our research to continue but at the same time we have to keep a careful eye of how this research can continue providing that this careful eye is looked into or looked at protecting the rights of the people and I think it's the people that count at the end of the day some of the people who visited have been practicing they are herbalists they have been practicing for 40 or 50 years their knowledge came properly from a mother or a grandmother don't these people have rights shouldn't somebody be out there protecting those rights for them what becomes iffy is when cultures lose information and then have to buy it back if they are prevented from participating in the full benefits of the development at any number of levels that becomes a problem we don't want to treat anyone else in a way we would not like to be treated so if we have information we want to be recompense for it if we develop materials we want to be supported for that and so we want to be sure that the indigenous peoples are valued for their contribution both because that will ensure that they give us good information as well as that they then have access equal and fair access to the medicines that are appropriate for them sometimes students will come to my office to be interviewed for working in research labs and when I describe the project to them the medicinal print project they'll say oh yeah my grandmother made me it to you whenever I had a stomach ache or I had this when I had a headache or all of these times in their childhood and even into their adulthood they were given preparations made from regional plants to make them feel better these were quality of life medications these were not trauma events usually but they were a natural appropriate treatment that the families automatically gravitated to and used cover everything we go from anthropology to zoology I would have to say we start out because the basis the hypothesis is that if you use plants as a source of drugs that have been identified by cultures as being important medical agents you increase the odds of finding efficacious chemistries 2 to 3 fold so the drug companies know this factor medical communities understand this so what we're hoping to show is that students will learn how drugs are developed by studying the whole process of chemical synthesis chemical extractions analytical tools and then testing those chemistries for their efficacy and anti-cancer drugs or at least many of them are derived from natural sources plants and microorganisms so over the millennia that evolution has worked on these sources they have developed very sophisticated pathways to produce small molecules what we know is drugs and that evolutionary process has yielded things that are very specific in their action what we're trying to do is to discover whether that specificity is useful in the treatment of cancer that's great for a hundred specific diseases specific indications that we call cancer that we collectively call cancer and those all have unique genetic fingerprints so the likelihood that any single drug will be active against the whole spectrum of tumors is small what we're trying to do is now find match specific medicines with specific genetic fingerprints to treat cancers that's wonderful و ليس كذلك فكلا ذلك أنت تقف عليها دعم بحلقك و مستحيلك فقط تقف شكومة سمجر و وضعا كذلك لست حدار لمقعدة سنضع و موأ و لقد رمضنا دعنا نجاحنا دعنا نضع و نخفض لن نضع و نخفض فلقد أكترب أكترا لأنه حقا لأننا أفهم أنه مبدوات الأخدم المفتاح الأخدم على سعيدهم لذا إذا قتلت لنت أن الشيان يجب نفذ أكترا إذا كنت أخبرهم ، فلنقوموا بعمل هذه الفيوشن ونقوموا بعملهم مجدداً كل ثلاث سنقوم بعملها وإنه يعمل سوف يكون لدينا سنواتنا في هذا المجتمع وستخدمكم جيداً أنه ليس فقط نفسي لدينا أكثر جيبين يجدون المجتمع ونحن لدينا أكثر جيبين يعملون في مجموعة نعمل من يوم إلى ستر. يوم في العام. ونحن لا نشاهد المساعدة ولكن إذا كانت المساعدة والمساعدة ولكن نبدأ نشاهد هنا. نظر أن نرى بعض المساعدة. لذلك يجب أن نساعد المساعدة المساعدة. now we are growing so much that we have close to seven thousand families يأتي إلى هذا المساعدة ونحن في مرسلات يوم. ونطلق من البابي إلى 90 سنوات المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة المساعدة ومن one of the reasons that we have been so successful is because لدينا مستخدمات الوصول للمساعدة. ونحن نتحب المساعدة لن يكون لدينا مستخدمات الوصول للمساعدة. ونطلق من البابي إلى المساعدة. المساعدة يتلقق من البابي إلى المساعدة. المعرفة تظهر أن هذه المساعدة تكتب جدًا من المساعدة. فهذا areganisms that only occur here. ونحن نتحدث عن at least 50 منطلاقات المساعدة. لقد قد قد قد 150 منطلاقات المساعدة هناكوه expanding on the island ، جدين مجموعة المنطلاقات المكافشة يجب تكون only in Curacao الهروب و بونير. أجيال هذه الملخودة بأن الفني بدون المزدلية ومiel أث Speak. جدانا. المساعدات حية were these kinds of bays with the seagrasses وكانيا الم فيرنة on the mangroves ت完了okes a critical role asようاب었어요 م 수�د الدرسات لغناء وقناءرا متناشربين سنبسغ معرفته، ولويةatoos Like the yellow tail snapper، ولويةatoos يقل جقة سجناءنا ندى صasiaية منطقة السلطانة العربي. ومنطقة كرسي. ووعي المستعدين للمتواسات سنابط. لقد نضعت لدينا منطقة المستعدين من سنة 1960 إلى 1992. ومنطقة كلرة أشخاص. التحديق القرار. عندما أخذ كنين وراء ونقوم بعمل في هنا. إنميز الجميع لدى قلبيات صدرات و صدرات أمانية لأ you can see the dead colonies right there right now they're all dead these were big colonies of coral teaming with lobster and small fish and that's all gone now so if we continue along this trend we'll lose even the remaining values which are considered شو ميلي وطاوح يقوم يندا شو بميلي و فينا في ملوقا و كفا. من أیل و كفا.. عن الغين مجرد أن يبخي مواقع الصين من أساس. مثل يوجد مقهصة جدًا كانوا ممطقة على حفظة الجاريك بالكرز. بهذا أهاله ن boss و مديسيون أرس. يسمى دب فيهر و دب فيهر يأتي من فرى جيري. فرى جيري pm سنوات أول بشكل كبير. كانت أحد من أجل أجهزة هذه المدينة لكن منذ أولئيات تبقى كورساو now some of these natural medicinal wonders are threatened both on the land and coastal waters what's at stake is the promise that some of these plants might hold the secret for future medical cures on land the Divi Divi tree has shown a remarkable ability to fight staff infections under water a local algae called mermaids hair has proven to have strong anti-cancer properties so it's pretty amazing to think that an algae growing under a mangrove and a little bay on the west coast of Kura Sao in the middle of the Caribbean could in fact yield a compound that ultimately could be used to treat cancer as science races against time new discoveries based on age old knowledge continues it is an extraordinary convergence of ancient roots modern medicine this is the southern caribbean island of Kura Sao its arid limestone terrain is harsh at times almost desolate people have braved this sun beaten dry land for centuries mastering the use of its sparse vegetation and for some this tradition continues even now this is the laki laki this is the laki laki this is the laki laki this is the laki laki this is the laki laki you know it's a very nice plant when you have very much sun it will close the leaves you know and so take like a like looking for shade we use it for when we have a headache so you can take little bits you know and do it around the heart and it's it's very very good for people with headaches this is Dina Fires today she is collecting medicinal plants from hilltops in the middle of the island Dina is known throughout Kura Sao as a healer or in the local language of Papiamento a curioso she will take these plants home and make blends of herbal medicine to sell her knowledge of the local botany is impressive this is called the Barba di Manisci or the Maridi Palu of Barba di Kadushi it grows like a parasite on the plant and this we use for when people have gallbladder problems we use this one I give my knowledge away because I got it from the older people they give me their knowledge and I feel that I have to give that knowledge to other people, the young people so they can spread it besides collecting medicinal plants Dina is on a mission to also preserve them in the early 1980s she began Den Paradera a magnificent botanical garden where she propagates over 300 species when Dina was unable to find certain types on Kura Sao she traveled to the neighboring islands of Bonaire and Aruba where the plants had not yet been eliminated from the landscape yes, I started in Paradera because I saw that we were losing a lot of information a lot of herbs you could be today here and see a lot of herbs the next day you would be not finding that anymore so I started to bring the herbs to this garden to keep the knowledge the garden is very important to me because I cultivate the medicinal herbs so we can know the stories we can know what kind of herbs we have on this island and also to learn how to use it it will be a pity that we lose all the information of the uses of the culture because people don't know how to use the herbs the garden is divided in three parts the botanical part, the historical part and the production the botanical parts are the herbs divided in sections for the digestion, for the heart, for the respiratory system you know, when I started the people thought I was crazy because I had a good job why should I go and make my hands dirt with the land so they taught you know I had a dream that I needed to conserve the culture to conserve the information and to have the plants so I went on even if people were laughing it didn't matter the slaves when they came here they brought seeds nobody knew that they had the seeds with them they wanted to survive they didn't know where they were going and also when they were here they could recognize some of the trees and plants that they had in Africa there were people who know the medicinal healing so as the medicinal doctors you know the medical, the healing doctors so they could go to those healing doctors so they could find help here in the Kura Hulanda Museum in nearby Vilemstadt actors from the Living History Theater Group portray plantation life and the tragic plight of the captured Africans experts estimate that during the 18th and 19th centuries millions of people were enslaved along Africa's western coast the Dutch, in need of securing their new colony used slave ships to cross the 5,000 miles of treacherous sea it was a long arduous journey to reach the tiny island of Kura Sao yeah the slaves arrived here on front of the building and they were unshipped here you must imagine they were on the ship for 6 to 8 weeks but most of them Leo Helms is the director of the Kura Hulanda Museum which is built on the very site of Kura Sao's old slave market and they were very weak and in a very bad condition when they arrived here and then they stayed here on the property for one or two months yeah to get a little bit more stronger they send them out to the other mansions on the island to be trained how to work on the plantations from here they were shipped to Cuba and North America those that stayed behind in Kura Sao learned how to adapt to their new life many had come from rich West African kingdoms proud civilizations that had thrived in mother Africa even though the slaves suffered unimaginable hardships many of their old customs endured so did their ancient knowledge of medicinal plants come on in have a seat the old wisdom of medicinal plant use is still practiced at Den Pardera this Kura Sao woman Sonya is back for a visit like many from the Dutch Antilles she now lives in the Netherlands Sonya has experienced severe respiratory problems for the past two years and modern medicines have failed to cure her she has turned to Dina for help just wait here I will go get the herbs for you in her kitchen Dina prepares several medicines made from medicinal plants to cure Sonya's ailment they are old recipes passed on to her by island elders in the beginning when doctors know that I was working you know with the plants they laughed at me but sometimes I had doctors here in the garden and they still asking questions but now they I mean I am accepted on this island I know people come for advice I can call a doctor they know me and I can ask what's the best medicine at this moment are herbs the best I believe that we have to work together come here with Sonya's treatment complete Dina leaves Den Paradera for a visit with some of her old friends first on Dina's list today is to visit sister Carmen sister Carmen came formally to iron my clothes she was one of the number of healers that Dina chronicled in her book green remedies and golden customs of our ancestors so then we started to talk I noticed that she knew a lot about herbs and that she wanted to conserve the herbs and that in her garden she had some herbs so when she was ironing I was asking so I could sit with her for hours and hours learning from sister Carmen what is this plant? this is Yerba de Ole when a child has a fever you can put it on their feet or you can give it to them as a tea how do they do that? they mash it up and mix it with coconut oil and put it on the feet they also put it behind the ear yes the herb relieves the problem Dina also stops by the home of another wise elder by the name of Chacha herbs are always good like chamomile it will cleanse the insides the sandura is always good for the stomach morning is the best time to drink herbs this will give you a good appetite if you have gas in your belly you drink your mampuritu and you will get rid of the gas I had a very good time with Chacha because she has been learning from her aunt so she knew a lot about medicinal herbs there are herbs that used to be easy to find now you don't see them anymore mampuritu is like that you don't even see it in the schoolyards it's all gone it was important for Dina to document the wise words of these elders for their generation has nearly vanished today few young islanders show much interest in medicinal plants what we need is people young people to learn the herbs from this country at this moment you see that plants and medicinal herbs are coming from Colombia, Venezuela and Santo Domingo a lot of them are sold on the market I don't feel very well about that because it's not the same culture as that of Curacao you can see on the market it's dominating the culture of the island there is more to Curacao than its fanciful harbor front facade that greets incoming cruise ships this city has the deepest harbor in the west indeed making it a regional center for maritime commerce like many islands throughout the Caribbean Curacao is modernizing most people here enjoy the conveniences of modern drugs doctors and medical facilities because of this much of the ancient knowledge of medicinal plants is being left behind but the cultural legacy of healers like sister Carmen and Chacha is not the only thing that is threatened the wild places where medicinal plants grow are also under attack from urbanization industrial expansion and increased development more people and more growth are beginning to tax the Canucu Curacao's fragile arid countryside Dina makes one more stop before returning home to Denparadera she heads for one of her favorite spots near the sea Dina has become increasingly worried about the numbers of wild medicinal plants dwindle each year she blames the oil refineries in part for upsetting the ecological balance I'm very concerned when the oil company came they pumped a lot of water so the water got down and people can make wells whenever they want there are no rules so we are losing the water that's under the ground this year it was very very hot almost one year no rain so we are losing very old trees who are more than 200 years old but Dina Ferris is not alone in her concern for the botanical wonders of Curacao here high on the slopes of Cristofal National Park biologist John De Freitas searches for plants that hold potential medicinal cures he works for a local institute called Carmabi the Caribbean Marine Biological Foundation they are doing baseline science attempting to catalog the island's 500 plus plant species the list has been cut to about 100 that show bacteria fighting properties here we have a number of endemic species endemic means that they only occur on only on Curacao or on the leeward islands of Nalans and Thales that comprises not only Curacao but also Bonaire and Aruba one such unique species called Eugenia is one of two rare plants that interest De Freitas due to its strong antibacterial tendencies the name of this plant is Eugenia Procera it's only found in the Caribbean and on Curacao it's mostly found in the Cristofal Park and it's part of the Mitesi family to which also the Eucalyptus tree belongs John also gathers samples of the Divi Divi tree which is found on slope it has shown a remarkable ability to fight staff infections there is a story of an old man and he has very good eyesight and he says that's due to the fact that he uses the Divi Divi leaves as an eye wash every morning that's a very interesting connotation Divi Divi was active against several microorganisms and also the highest level of activity so it's a very interesting result as John makes his way off Mount Cristofal his work with Eugenia and the Divi Divi is just beginning back at the Carmarbi Institute the samples are dried for those used in antimicrobial testing ovens are used to speed up the process for other samples that require examination of essential oils the plants are spread out on a table this drying process can take up to two weeks and then the tests begin yes these are the results of the 10 layer chromatography of the plants we screened for antimicrobial properties to date, Defratus' study has shown some promising results a number of plants including Eugenia and the Divi Divi have shown strong activity against bacteria this baseline science could lead other researchers in developing modern medicines based on the power of these ancient roots, stems and leaves in the year 2000 a study by Conservation International declared the Caribbean as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots areas rich with flora and fauna of unique qualities Curacao in spite of its arid terrain is surprisingly biodiverse but John, like Dina Firas, is concerned with the island's future I'm concerned that certain areas that harbour certain plants a unique plant species that doesn't occur anywhere else on the island it would be petty that those areas would be destroyed for economic development if you destroy those areas you won't have them back and it will take many decades to create areas similar to those with those characteristics that's why it's very important for these islands to look ahead and take into account conservation of these areas but not all of the island's natural medicinal wealth lies on the land in the early 1990s American researcher Bill Gerwick discovered a blue-green algae called lingia majuscula or mermaids hair Bill was able to isolate a chemical compound from the algae that he named curason A in honour of curacao Early clinical studies showed that it had powerful anti-cancer properties Today Bill and his wife Lena along with a crew from the Carmabi Institute are getting ready to travel back to where this one-of-a-kind algae was discovered over a decade ago We made some of our first collections back in December 1991 We found that curacao was very receptive to our coming and exploring their biodiversity for compounds that might be useful to treat human diseases The particular bay that we've come to focus on is called Spanish Water So what's really unique about the Spanish Waters Bay is that the blue-green algae growing there is known as lingbia majuscula You can find lingbia majuscula in other bays nearby But when we looked at the lingbia majuscula from the other bays they didn't produce the same compounds they produced other compounds that were quite interesting but they didn't produce curason A Do you dive a computer? No This is a shallow dive so and it'll be less than an hour No scorpions in there That's always nice to know Gerwick and researcher Dolphi de Broot from Carmabi don their diving gear to revisit the rich collection site where the special algae was originally found It's been several years since Bill collected here and he is anxious to see what's below This mermaid's hair or lingbia majuscula as we know it in scientific terms it's really quite a remarkable organism because it's actually a bacterium but a giant bacterium From the mangrove roots it has one kind of a color it's growing somewhat back underneath the mangroves growing down as trellises They're kind of fluffy and have a really quite beautiful reddish color oftentimes The buried treasure here on this island though may not be on land, it may be in the sea it may be some of these algae or creating molecules that will be enormously useful in helping human society That was some great stuff there We've got some good samples Gerwick eagerly pulls out his field microscope and inspects the new collection These red hairs when we see them in the field but here you can see that they're actually a whole series of little pancakes or coins stacked into these long filaments and they're all encased in that sheath like material It's really quite a remarkable organism It's been really nice to see that those algae are still living in that environment and are still quite healthy So this is the treasure trove of natural products that we've been studying for the last nearly 15 years now It's absolutely amazing the diversity and biological activity of the compounds that this little seaweed is making But after the excitement of the moment Bill discovers a disturbing change in Spanish water As their boat slowly leaves the bay the beginnings of a new coastline development come into view It's really sad and really hard for me to see because it's going to destroy this habitat This habitat that is very small and very unique and it's given rise to this unique organism We've not seen this organism anywhere else in the world It will look just like it does over here They're going to put in houses and docks and a marina and these kinds of things and it's going to substantially alter this habitat I would fully expect the organism to disappear So when I see this kind of development going on and it just really alarms me because what they're doing is they're taking their future this treasure trove of species and chemistry and they're bulldozing it down and we may never unearth this treasure again The problem is that the shoreline areas are an integral part of your marine ecosystem Particularly when you're urbanizing areas like this you're going to put in non-native trees that require pesticides to maintain And when you're putting in lawns with a great deal of water they'll require nutrients that is fertilizers and pesticides to maintain them too And as a consequence all that stuff leeches into the bay and destroys the habitat, contaminates it The current island development plan which was approved in 1997 approves about 90% of the shorelines of this bay for urban uses And that will mean that this bay will essentially turn into an urban cesspool with just line with homes no scenery, no nature left and mishmash of boats zooming around And we already are facing human health related water quality problems in parts of the bay during parts of the year I can take you diving on that side of the bay and we'll see beautiful white bottoms ocean floor but not due to white sand which it should be but due to toilet paper Not only is the future of mermaids' hair in jeopardy but Curisan A, its cancer fighting compound is also facing challenges in the laboratory Initial tests were promising and showed the substance to be highly toxic to cancerous cells But in later experiments at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland Curisan A was found to have solubility issues and was unstable when tested in mice These problems were a major setback for the development of the compound into a modern drug And that said to us that the compound was unstable under the conditions of the body So that has led subsequently now to an effort to refine that structure make it a better molecule And that's what we really should be looking to in nature We're looking for new ideas new chemical templates that we're going to take that new chemical structure from the seaweed and we're going to translate it into a molecule that's going to be an efficacious drug We need to improve its water solubility and its stability in the body And those efforts are taking place right now in various laboratories around the world One such place is here at the University of Pittsburgh where chemistry professor Peter Wyth has taken on the structural challenges of Curisan A The molecule was significant and interesting for us because it targeted the part of the biological machinery within the cell That's quite crucial for its growth particularly in cancer cells Basically cancer cells are very similar to normal cells And that's why it's so difficult to develop effective anti-cancer agents But what we like to do is use the ability of structures such as Curisan A and the analogues that are developed on this basis And basically to move cancer cells into what's called apoptosis or programmed cell suicide But first, professor Wyth and his students had to tackle the inherent problems of Curisan A They overcame the solubility issue making a chemical hybrid structure much like other drug-like molecules that dissolve easily in water They also solved the compounds' sensitivity to light It's a molecular tinker toy set And we are able to build just about anything we'd like to build And that's very satisfying very challenging You can truly take your visions and test them with the potential goal of improving the environment improving human health improving living in general Even though the new compound based on Curisan A showed increased biological activity and another problem when tested with lab animals The compound metabolized too quickly due to the animals' enzymes not allowing it time enough to attack the tumor So we now know where the sensitive parts of the molecule are And so we can address the problems in terms of stability towards the biological environment when the compound is actually given to an animal and is in the blood of an animal But ultimately we hope that then we will have a needed compound And the mouse will basically make human tumors disappear But that's just a mouse system So from there on you have to go to a higher animal and reproduce the same findings To make a modern drug from a natural substance is a long process one full of delays and challenges Peter Wiff estimates that the development takes two to seven years That's not including the clinical trials that can take up to a decade but the drug is finally released to the public We really would like to seek Curisan A analogue, move into the clinic and test the hypothesis that we can develop an anti-cancer agent at the molecular level that has the effect of predicting stopping cell division and moving cancer cells selectively into cell suicide We hope we can accomplish that But even if we don't get to the final drug molecule we hope we can learn a lot about the process So maybe with another natural product next time around you'll be able to go all the way So we have all this information We can follow a single compound very well But still a huge challenge on something that makes us very modest again is the fact that very often in the end we cannot explain really what's going on So we can see that some of these uses of the traditional medicine the Falk medicine are very valid if you look at the big picture at the overall organisms people do feel better they can get better quite well Back on Curisan Dina Firis continues her one-woman crusade to save the traditional knowledge of island medicine and the desert's botanical wealth If the convergence of ancient roots and modern medicine is to continue people like Dina are essential human links in this vital process The future for medicinal plants in Curacao is the hope that I have the hope that young people can go on with this the hope that my children will learn to be able to spread that my grandchildren will be able to move the herbs from the garden and the herb from the mountain That's the biggest joy I will have Have a happy new year Happy new year For more information on ancient roots Modern Medicine log on to www.routesanmedicin.com