Bioprospecting Success, Potential and Constraints
This book considers all aspects of bioprospecting in 14 succinct chapters and a forward by David Hawksworth. The organisms addressed include plants, insects, fungi, bacteria and phages. Bioprospecting has never been more relevant and is of renewed interes
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Russell Paterson Nelson Lima Editors
Bioprospecting Success, Potential and Constraints
Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation Volume 16
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7488
Russell Paterson • Nelson Lima Editors
Bioprospecting Success, Potential and Constraints
Editors Russell Paterson Centre of Biological Engineering University of Minho Braga, Portugal
Nelson Lima Centre of Biological Engineering University of Minho Braga, Portugal
ISSN 1875-1288 ISSN 1875-1296 (electronic) Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation ISBN 978-3-319-47933-0 ISBN 978-3-319-47935-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47935-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016961311 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
Living organisms have been tested for their potential as food and medicines from the earliest days of humankind. However, it was really only after the spectacular demonstrations in the 1930s and 1940s of the efficacy of penicillin, first named in 1929 from what we now know to have been Penicillium rubens (Houbraken et al. 2011), that industry started to look for novel exploitable products in earnest. A gold rush started, and bacteria and fungi in particular were isolated in huge numbers from soils and other substrata worldwide. The penicillins were soon followed by other wonder drugs such as the cephalosporins, erythromycin, nystatin and streptomycin. Major pharmaceutical companies across the world had massive screening programmes through into the early 1990s, some employing staff overseas to isolate strains and others requesting staff to collect soil samples whilst on vacation around the world. Tens of thousands of strains were being screened annually by majo
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