119 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, presently engaged in such work as 

 experimental oyster farming, should he given more explicit Federal 

 responsibility for investigating aguaculture potentials. 



Extracting Drugs from the Sea 



Groups concerned with the health sciences 

 must carefully evaluate the sea as a source of 

 new and useful medicinal raw materials. 



The medical history of people bordering 

 the seas is replete with evidence that prod- 

 ucts witli pliarniaceiitical applications can 

 be obtained from the plants and animals of 

 the sea. However, the present use of these 

 products is small compared with similar 



products obtained from land organisms. With 

 some exceptions, most of the marine drugs 

 are used in rather crude dosage forms by 

 peoples of some developing nations, just as 

 the majority of crude botanical and zoologi- 

 cal drugs were used in this coimtry more than 

 40 years ago. 



Practically no research is presently being 

 conducted by government or industry on ma- 

 rine bioactive substances as possible sources 



