The slime from a poisonous Amazon tree frog could transform the fortunes of an indigenous tribe that lives largely without links to the outside world.Tribal shamans have used the slime as an ancestral remedy to treat illness, pain, even laziness, and this has caught the attention of the global pharmaceutical industry.
The key ingredients are compounds with anesthetic, tranquilizing and other medicinal properties. Scientists say the promise lies in isolating peptides from the frog's slime and then reproducing them for medicines to treat hypertension, strokes and other illnesses.
The tribe has the backing of Brazil's government, which sees the frog slime as a stepping stone to significantly advance its own research and development in pharmaceuticals and be a positive note amidst all the bad publicity about the Amazon basin being destroyed because of exploitation and overdevelopment.
The New York Times has more here.
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