Lowly Weeds May Hold Promise For Curing Host Of Common Health
Woes GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Unwanted, pulled or poisoned, the
lowly weed is sometimes better than its highly touted "herbal"
cousins for preventing and curing a host of diseases, according
to University of Florida research. "If I had one place to go to
find medicinal plants, it wouldn't be the forest," said John
Richard Stepp, a UF anthropologist who did the study. "There are
probably hundreds of weeds growing right outside people's doors
they could use." Stepp combed through scientific journals and
studies to determine which drugs on pharmacy shelves come from
plants as opposed to those synthesized in a laboratory. In a
classic case of looking afar rather than at your feet, he found
that although only about 3 percent of the world's quarter-
million plant species are weeds, they make up more than a third
36 of the 101 plant species used in pharmaceuticals. In drug
companies' quests to discover new remedies, weeds short-lived,
herbaceous, fast-growing