16 



cure for cancer perhaps is found and would be destroyed if that 

 land were developed? What do we do? 



How can we be fair to both the landowner himself who has in 

 good faith provided responsibly for himself and his family's future, 

 and how do we act in a way that is fair to the rest of mankind? 

 That is a more polite phrasing or milder version than you might 

 have heard. Does anybody have any ideas? 



Ms. McMahan. To me, it is a very complex issue. It is more diffi- 

 cult for you than it is for me. My answer for myself is pretty easy, 

 but that is not the political reality of today. 



I think it is important to remember that we restrict private prop- 

 erty rights for a very large number of reasons in this country. We 

 restrict private property rights for purposes of the environment, 

 wetlands and other things, we restrict property rights for preserv- 

 ing agricultural land, for cultural heritage, for public safety and 

 for a lot of things. 



I don't think that the question is a whole lot different when we 

 talk about the issue of endangered plants than any other issue that 

 we think is real important. 



It is a difficult question. It is a difficult set of compromises, but I 

 think it is something we have to address with the same fervor and 

 the same belief in plants as a public good as we do those other 

 things that we accept as a public good. 



Mr. Studds. Do you think you could get every garden club in 

 America to convey that to their representatives? 



Ms. McMahan. I think that garden clubs are perhaps the easi- 

 est, sir. The Garden Club of America, which represents a great 

 many garden clubs in this country, is very interested in this topic 

 and very supportive of rights for endangered plants. 



Mr. Studds. I hope they will let that be widely known in all 50 

 States. 



Dr. Grever, you were speaking about the number of HlV-specific 

 things. You noted that in several cases tropical substances have 

 been isolated for preclinical development. How far are we from 

 phase-one clinical trials in any of those situations? 



Dr. Greyer. One of the agents that is very interesting because it 

 has a broad spectrum of activity against both HIV-1 and HIV-2 is 

 called Michellamine B. It is currently undergoing toxicologic eval- 

 uation. Our hope is that this will enter a phase-one clinical trial 

 within the first quarter of 1994. That is probably the closest one. 



Mr. Studds. The October issue of the Far East Economic Review 

 reports that trichosanthin, a compound derived from the root of a 

 cucumber-like plant in China, shows promise. It says that 12 people 

 with critical stages of the disease have used it with apparently 

 total success. Do you know anything about that compound? 



Dr. Grever. I cannot comment specifically. I have read some- 

 thing similar to that recently. This material has been submitted to 

 our screen for in vitro evaluation. 



Mr. Studds. NCI is investigating that? 



Dr. Greyer. Yes. I would have to go back and look at the data 

 before I could comment specifically. 



Mr. Studds. I would appreciate it if you could do that for us. 

 Thank you. 



[The information can be found at the end of the hearing.] 



