For five thousand years, nature has been the provider of medicinal raw materials for humans. However, the ongoing degradation of the environment today endangers the reciprocal relationship between nature and humans and marginalizes knowledge about the therapeutic properties of plants, which our ancestors passed down to us.
In the face of this threat, scientists from around the world are exploring nature, trying to record all the remaining sources that will serve as a launching pad for the creation of new pharmaceutical preparations. How were all these discoveries made? How can we today, with the help of biology and chemistry, choose the appropriate natural substances? Who controls the use of natural substances? The states, the laboratories? How are the results of such a discovery utilized? What are the new fields of disease treatment? Pierre Potier and François Sast tell this story, which is as old as the history of mankind, but also full of scientific and economic challenges!