Scientists fear humanity could lose half of all its future medicines because so many plants face extinction

Humanity faces losing around half of all future medicines because so many plants face extinction, according to a new report.

Nearly half of all flowering plants on Earth are threatened – some 100,000.

As most medicines are based on plant compounds, scientists estimate that because 45 per cent of flowering plants are endangered, it means humans potentially risk losing a large potential source of future medicines.

The findings are contained in The State of the World’s Plants and Fungi, a major report by scientists at Kew.

The Kew scientists also warn that many plants are going extinct before they have even been discovered. They estimate that three out of four plants yet undiscovered by science are at risk.

This is based on the estimate that of the 2,500 new plants discovered each year, on average, three quarters are immediately classified as at risk of extinction, suggesting that future discoveries will be equally threatened.

Conservation analyst Dr Matilda Brown said: ‘We’re looking at over 100,000 [plant] species that are threatened – that’s more than the total number of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, all of our vertebrates put together.

‘And when we consider that nine out of 10 of our medicines come from plants, what we’re potentially staring down the barrel of is losing up to half of all of our future medicines.’ Over 200 scientists from 102 institutions in 30 countries across the world contributed to Kew’s report.

Mycologists – those who study fungi – estimate there are around 2.5 million fungi species, in total of which just 155,000 have been catalogued.

The report also warned that an estimated three out of four plants yet to be discovered are at risk

Professor Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Kew, said: ‘We know more about the surface of Mars than we know about fungi on this planet.’ 

Fungi are also a rich potential source of medicines and useful compounds – including those that are able to help industrial processes such as breaking down plastic.

The report said over 59 per cent of new plant and fungi species described in 2020 are likely to meet the criteria for Endangered and 24 per cent are likely to meet the criteria for Critically Endangered.

The report highlights that new types of fungi are even being uncovered in the UK.