👉 NEET Biology Examination
👉 NEET Biology Tips
👉 NEET Biology Study Material
👉 UGC Net Study Material
What is Biopiracy ?
- Some organisations and multinational companies exploit and / or patent biological resources or bioresources of other nations without proper authorisation from the countries concerned , this is called biopiracy.
- Some examples of famous collecting trips are given below
- The recorded history of international plant collecting missions goes back at least 3500 years when Egyptian rulers began bringing plants home after military expeditions.
- In the last century , the British Empire instituted regular plant collections . During the Voyage of the Beagle , Charles Darwin simply took what interested him , from the Galapagos and elsewhere , and brought it home
- The Royal Botanical Gardens took rubber trees from Brazil , and planted them in South East Asia. They took cinchona seeds from Bolivia , in violation of national law , and planted them in India.
- Commodore Perry's naval mission to Japan collected a wide variety of plants to bring back to the United States.
- More recently , the adventures of Richard Shultes during the mid - twentieth century have become a legend among ethnobotanists. He was able to befriend local shamans , who allowed him to collect thousands of voucher specimens of medicinal plants, hundreds of which had never previously been identified taxonomically.
- None of these famous collecting trips was challenged on legal grounds.
- Institutions and companies of industrialised nations are collecting and exploiting the bioresources, as follows
- They are collecting and patenting the genetic resources themselves. For example, a patent granted in U.S.A. covers the entire 'basmati' rice germplasm indigenous to our country.
- The bioresources are being analysed for juemuncation of valuable biomolecules. A biomolecule is a compound produced by a living organism . The biomolecules are then patented and used for commercial activities.
- Useful genes are isolated from the bioresources and patented. These genes are then used to generate commercial products..
- The traditional knowledge related to bioresources is utilised to achieve the above objectives. In some cases , the traditional knowledge itself may be the subject of a patent.
- express it in maize Kernels. These Kernels will then be used for the extraction of brazzein.
- This development could have serious implications for countries exporting large quantities of sugar.
Example Of Biopiracy
- The Thai Ministry of Science and its Biotech Institute has accused the British University of Portsmouth of " biopiracy " as they have refused to return up to 200 strains of marine fungi that they collected in coastal waters and swamps around Thailand.
- Instead, Portsmouth University is reported to be in the process of selling the rights on “ their ” Thai fungi to a drug company for screening, as the fungi are believed to contain compounds for treating everything from AIDS to cancer - worth millions of pounds.
- Thailand insists that keeping the fungi without permission is in breach of international agreements.
- India is a country rich in tradition, communal knowledge and expertise in natural medicines, spices, food preparations, biological pesticides and diverse agriculture.
- It is thus under siege from biopirates.
- Through patenting without consent, foreign companies have collared at least 22 plants for their beneficial derivatives.
- Patents have been taken out on plants such as blad pepper (Piper nigrum), basmati rice ( Oryza sativa ), Indian mustard (Brassica campestris), pomegranate ( Punica granataum ), turmeric and neem . US, Japanese and German companies are the principal patenting pirates .
========================================
Please do not enter any spam link or word in the comment box