Biotech and pharmaceutical companies have made enormous strides in contributing to modem medicine in recent years; nevertheless, diseases like cancer diabetes, heart disease, and HIV continue to kill millions of people every year. Pharmaceutical companies continue to search for desperately needed cures, but are faced with an ever more pressing question - where to look? After focusing on manmade compounds in the 1990s, many companies have realized the answer may lie in the "complexity and diversity of natural products [that] can't be matched by even the most innovative human scientist." While the pharmaceutical industry may have been slow to discover the potential of natural compounds, indigenous communities around the globe have been using natural remedies for centuries. These remedies have adapted over time to the changing needs of the community, adding to the medicinal knowledge of these natural products. These discoveries are part of a body of knowledge termed "traditional knowledge."

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