A journey through the Medicinal Plant Industry of the Caribbean highlighting Mona's Contribution

At the same time that the Caribbean is a tourism haven, it is also a bio-diversity hotspot. A ' hotspot' is a relatively small region containing a high percentage of endemic species that are in danger of extinction. In fact, the Caribbean region is one of the "hottest hotspots" as it contains 2.3 and 2.9% of the world's flora and fauna, respectively, on only 0.15% of the Earth's surface (Myers et al 2000), and only 11.3% of the Caribbean's primary vegetation remains. Nevertheless, more than 30% of the higher plant species presently in the Caribbean are endemic. These findings have prompted Conservation International to designate the Caribbean among the top 8 of the world's 25 "hotspots" across the globe. The endemic species of Jamaica alone are an estimated 28% of the flowering plants (800 of 3000), 14% of the ferns (82 of 597), 18% of the birds (20 of 113) and 15% of the bats (3 of 20), to name a few. It is against this backdrop that journey through the Medicinal Plant Industry of the Caribbean will take place, travelling from the world-wide industry, into the Caribbean, to Jamaica, then to the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Biotechnology Centre (BTC) and finally to the activities of the Medicinal Plant Research Group (MPRG).