MEDICINAL USES OF PLANTS; PROTECTION 

 FOR PLANTS UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPE- 

 CIES ACT 



TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1993 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Environment and Natural 



Resources, 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, DC. 



The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Gerry E. Studds 

 [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 



Present: Representatives Studds, Hochbrueckner, Pallone, Furse, 

 and Taylor. 



Staff Present: Gina DeFerrari and Lesli Gray, Professional Staff; 

 Marvadell Zeeb, Clerk; Laurel Bryant, Minority Professional Staff; 

 Harry Burroughs, Minority Staff Director; and Cynthia Wilkinson, 

 Minority Chief Counsel. 



Mr. Studds. The Subcommittee will come to order. Let me ob- 

 serve at the outset that the photographs on the wall here, newly 

 arrived, are from an exhibit by Mary L. Levine called Rare Beauty, 

 America's Endangered Plants. This exhibit is sponsored by the Na- 

 tional Fish and Wildlife Foundation. These photographs are on 

 loan to the Committee through the end of the year. 



I guess it is the way to reach even the most hardhearted of our 

 brethren when it comes to endangered flora, not that we have any 

 of those. 



STATEMENT OF HON. GERRY E. STUDDS, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 

 FROM MASSACHUSETTS, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

 ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



This morning, the Subcommittee meets to examine the medicinal 

 value of plants and the array of cures they may hold for all the 

 things that ail us. We will also discuss the extent to which endan- 

 gered plants are protected under the Endangered Species Act 

 (ESA). 



Plants have been used for medicinal purposes for a millennium. 

 Today, one need only look as far as his or her own medicine cabi- 

 net to locate a product derived from plants — aspirin. And there are 

 many other examples. 



Anyone who has felt the immediate relief of the aloe vera plant 

 on a blistering sunburn can certainly appreciate its healing quali- 



(1) 



