**7. Bioprospecting**

The emergence of the discourse of 'Bioprospecting' was discussed in (in the late 1980s or early 1990s) for the search of biological resources that can help to contribute for the conservation as well as the discovery of beneficial products [42]. Bioprospecting is defined as 'the search for biodiversity, for valuable genetic and biochemical information found in wild animals, plants or microbial organisms' for product development as a purely scientific and commercial endeavor [43]. Bioprospecting is the exploration of biodiversity for new biological resources of social and economic value. It is carried out by a wide variety of industries, the best known being the pharmaceutical industry, but also by a variety of branches of agriculture, manufacturing, engineering, construction and many others [44]. The bioprospecting concept is based on recognition of the importance of natural product discovery for the development of new crops and medicines, often based on traditional knowledge [42]. Pharmaceutical bioprospecting has been sharply criticized for what has become known as 'biopiracy' in which large international pharmaceutical corporations make use of local medicinal knowledge without acknowledging that it is indigenous intellectual property [44, 45].

#### **Figure 2.**

*Kani tribe with* Trichopus zeylanicus *collected from southern Western Ghats Kerala (source: The Hindu news paper dated October 18, 2012).*

However, bioprospecting has received more attention in recent years due to the increasing awareness that new drugs will be urgently needed in the near future, either to cure currently incurable diseases affecting an increasing global population or replacing increasingly ineffective drugs to treat health problems. Bioprospecting can impact any industry that depends (wholly or partly) on accessing, sourcing, processing, or production of genetic resources to develop commercially viable products for the world market [46].

An example of bioprospecting that has been cited as a success story of benefit sharing is the Kani model of access and benefit sharing (ABS). *Trichopus zeylanicus* known as 'Arogyapacha' used to treat fatigue and stress by the Kani tribe, inhabiting from Southern Western Ghat region of Kerala State in India (**Figure 2**). The lead provided by this tribal community has led to the development of a scientifically validated drug "Jeevani" by the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI). While transferring the technology for production of the drug to the pharmaceutical firm, TBGRI agreed to share the license fee and royalty with the tribal community on a fifty-fifty basis. This is the first benefit sharing model in the world. However Kani case has criticized for whether the commercialization got informed consent from tribal community and sharing financial benefits equitably. This benefit-sharing model have been criticized for not yielding the desired the results [47–51].
