Humanity Could Lose Up to Half of Future Medicines Through Plant Extinctions

October 10, 2023

(Evening Standard via MSN) – Humanity is “staring down the barrel” of potentially losing up to half of its future medicines because so many plant species are facing extinction, scientists have warned. Nearly half of all those that flower are threatened, amounting to over 100,000, while it is believed that around 77% of all those as yet undescribed by science are at risk. In some cases they are going extinct between the time of first discovery and when they are catalogued, which takes around 16 years on average. (Read More)