Jamaica sitting on medicinal plant potential......"We have about 3,000 different plants in Jamaica and about 27 per cent, just over 800 of that, are not found anywhere else"

DEAN of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the West Indies Professor Paul Reece said that Jamaica needs to tap into the huge medicinal potential that exists in its natural products.

Researcher Dr Roger Laine of Louisiana State University
in the United States (right) captures the attention of (from left)
Dr Andrew Lamn of the University of Technology in Kingston,
researcher Professor Reinhard Neier of the University of
Neuchatel in Switzerland and Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa,
deputy principal at the University of the West Indies (UWI)
in Mona, Kingston during the opening day of last week’s
 four-day Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry
symposium at UWI. (PHOTO: ASTON SPAULDING)

"We have about 3,000 different plants in Jamaica and about 27 per cent, just over 800 of that, are not found anywhere else, but very few plants have been studied and even then, over 2,000 that are found in other countries, sometimes in Jamaica, produce different products because it is dependent on the soil and climate that it is grown in," he said.

"We have barely scratched the surface and there is so much more to be done," added Professor Reece, who was speaking to the Jamaica Observer following the opening ceremony for the Natural Products and Medicinal Symposium hosted by the Chemistry Department in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the university in Mona, Kingston, last week. read more