Amazon home to staggering 30 to 40 thousand plant species

The açaí, the tucumã, and the buriti are the Amazon plants that most often appeared in scientific studies published in Brazil from 2017 to 2021 on raw materials from the region. Articles have been surveyed as part of a publication entitled Bioeconomia amazônica: uma navegação pelas fronteiras científicas e potenciais de inovação (“Amazon Bioeconomy: Navigating Across Scientific Frontiers and Innovation Potential”), released this week.

The survey was coordinated by World-Transforming Technologies (WTT) in association with Agência Bori, and charted 1,070 scientific articles released in the last five years on international journal portal Web of Science. Among the popular fields are plant science, environmental science, food science and technology, ecology, biochemistry, and molecular biology.

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“We need to draw attention to the scientific work done in the Amazon and about the Amazon. There’s a lot of research on the biodiversity assets that have the potential to play a major role in treating cancer and preventing infections with mercury, biomaterials, bioplastics, etc. Much of what’s being investigated can actually become technology, a solution to problems facing society,” says study developer and WTT Operations Manager Andre Wongtschowski.

The Amazon biome is massive both in its biodiversity and its dimensions, as it takes up nearly half of Brazil’s territory, in addition to being shared by neighboring countries like Colombia and Peru. As the publication points out, the total number of animal and plant species is not yet known, but estimates range form 30 to 40 thousand species of plants alone.

Hot stuff

After 1,070 scientific articles were mapped, specialists examined 621 studies that follow criteria on the generation of knowledge and on innovative potential in the scope of social and biological diversity in the Amazon. Among them, 11 assets appear in virtually every third research study—açaí, tucumã, buriti, piper, aniba, Brazil nut, andiroba, cupuaçu, lippia, guaraná, and bacaba.

Studies cover a vast array of topics. In them, plants are considered to suppress ovarian cancer cells, fight infectious diseases, and as sensitizing agents in photodynamic cancer therapy. Articles are also concerned with the scientific validation of assets traditionally employed in popular medicine to treat anemia, diarrhea, malaria, pain, inflammation, hepatitis, and kidney diseases for their effects against inflammation and diarrhea, for instance.

These assets can also be employed across multiple industrial activities—such as handcrafted articles, fabric production, yarns and fishing nets, cement-like materials for sustainable building, and biodegradable films.

“We have to bring visibility to these promising research studies, get them out of the shelves and off the paper, so they may become real solutions to key problems,” Wongtschowski argued.

An innovation policy for Brazil

A national innovation policy, the researcher argued, should set goals based on Brazil’s challenges, which must be overcome with science, supported by companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, and society at large.

“These challenges should be brought face to face with society’s challenges, with answers addressing both the social and the environmental challenges we face as society,” Wongtschowski pointed out. 

“Sectors must act together,” the specialist went on to note, “so that solid solutions can build an end-to-end value chain, benefiting the people, who in turn work to keep the forest alive and add value to biodiversity products.”

Also included in the publication is the summary of seven studies, selected under criteria such as innovative potential and scientific, social and economic relevance, in addition to five unpublished articles written by renowned scientists, managers, and entrepreneurs in the area.

Science in the Amazon

The work also underscores that the particular features and complexity of the Amazon biome must be considered when it comes to fostering innovation. Since bioeconomy in the Amazon is directly linked to the native resources of its fauna and flora, the forest must above all be preserved and local populations taken into account.

The authors list four principles: conservation of biodiversity, science and technology aimed at the sustainable use of social and biological diversity, redressing social and territorial inequalities, and expanding biodiverse and sustainable wooded areas.

“Each innovative process needs to include cultural issues, socio-environmental safeguards, the multiple territories and its impact, so that these technological innovations can change the world, strengthen local populations and keep the forest standing,” Professor Tatiana Schor, from the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) says in one of the articles in the publication.