Question

Extracts of the rosy periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, have provided medicine with vincristine and vinblastine, drugs now available for treating cancer. What human action promotes the ability to find this species of plant and discover its potential use for medicines?

Answer 1

Biodiversity conservation

Step-by-step explanation:

Biodiversity conservation means the protection of different species of organisms present around the world due to their potentials to be a source of drug, food, industrial materials or other important human use.

Several important species that could have been a source of food or other important materials have gone extinct either naturally or due to direct/indirect human actions.

Assuming rosy periwinkle has gone extinct, there is no way its extract would have been discovered to be a good treatment for cancer.

Hence, biodiversity conservation or preservation are efforts put in place to preserve organisms that will serve as our future heritage.