Water, Cacao, sugarcane,bananas,oranges, mangoes, papayas and rubber are also supplied for us from the rain forest. Rubber is not the only large industry dependent on products of the tropical forests. Woods, rattans, and bamboos become furniture and baskets. Nine major tropical spices are valued on the international market at hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The resins of tropical forest trees are indispensable components of varnishes and other industrial products. Gums, oils, waxes, natural sweeteners hundreds of times sweeter than cane sugar or saccharin- all these and more come from the tropical forests.

Bananas were once a rare sight; now the world consumes 40 million tons of them a year. And the once exotic avocado has become commonplace in the diet of many people. Yet, the world’s tropical forests are home to hundreds of other kinds of fruits, many of them important to local peoples but unknown to others. The names of Neotropical fruits such as zapote, sachamangua, cuprucu, or camucamu (the latter contains 30 times the amount of vitamin C as an orange), or “mangosteen” and “durian” from Malaysia may one day roll off our tongues as easily as “banana: or “pineapple”.

The palm family almost a “tree of life” in some parts of the world which includes 2000 species- have proved useful. Certain species are particularly important to indigenous peoples who rely on them for materials for hunting darts, for house building, weaving, charcoal, for medicines and for a variety of foods.

The rosy periwinkle for example- a plant native to Madagascar’s tropical forests, provides substances that are successful in treating certain forms of cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, and liver problems.

At least a quarter of U.S prescription drugs are based on plant substances, many native to tropical forests.

Nearly one-fourth of Southeast Asia’s original rain forest harbor plantations of rubber, palm, pulp trees, and other cash crops.

One key to why plants in the moist tropics offer so much for modern medicine may lie in their competition for survival. Plants and animals here have developed unique characteristics to ward off attack. Often that means they make toxic substances. The bounty of the world’s tropical forests far exceeds our present day understanding of it.

Although much is already known about the riches of the forest, future possibilities are far more exciting. Plants still undiscovered, their uses untapped, may broaden the variety of food and increase the availability to mankind.