Describe the consumptive use value of biodiversity as food, drugs and medicines, fuel and fibre with suitable examples.
Biological resources are the basis of life forms on our planet. The countries with maximum biodiversity possess better potential to compete with the rest of the world.
Biodiversity has great economic importance to mankind due to its many uses. Some of the uses with consumptive value are as follows:
Food is obtained from biodiversity sources like livestock, forestry and fish. Biodiversity in modern agriculture is beneficial as a source of new crops, e.g. cereals crop like wheat, rice and maize account for about 55% of protein and 60% of calories in humans.
Drugs such as morphine (Papaver somniferum), quinine (Cinchona ledgeriana), reserpine (Rauwolfia vomitoria), belladonna (Atropa belladonna), aconite (Aconitum napellus), wintergreen and birth bark (Gaultheria procumbens) are derived from plants.