Researchers with Panama’s Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have discovered more than 45 compounds in Coiba National Park that may help in fighting cancer, malaria and other tropical diseases.
Sources of new compounds found include corals, sponges, plants, fungi and bacteria associated with sea urchins, tunicates and fish, which continually evolve new chemical compounds to defend themselves against predators.
Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, has yielded Coibamide A, which extremely active against cancer cells; Veraguamide A, an anti-cancer compound named after Panama’s Veraguas Province; and Santacruzmate, an anti-parasitic compound named after Santa Cruz island.
Also, a group of chemicals known as coibanoles were isolated from fungi growing inside the leaves of a plant called Desmotes incomparabilis, a plant found only on Coiba Island.
Read more at STRI News.
See also: Police Recapture “Coiba Decapitator”
Cyanobacteria
[...] also: Cancer-fighting Compounds found on Coiba Island. A Galapagos [...]