Many of the foods and medicines we use come from rainforest trees and plants. It is important to look after our rainforests, because many more useful medicines could be found in them in the future.
All these things come from rainforests.
Lots of the foods that we eat come from rainforest trees and plants. Plants like pineapple, coffee and banana first grew wild in rainforests and are now grown on large plantations. Brazil nuts are still collected from trees growing in the rainforest.
The bark from this rainforest tree has saved many lives.
The bark of the cinchona tree contains the chemical quinine. Quinine is used to treat the disease malaria which is passed to humans by mosquitoes. Quinine is also used as an antiseptic, an insect repellent and a sun cream.
When rainforest trees are cut down the soil washes away.
Rainforests grow on shallow soil which is low in nutrients (goodness). Trees can only grow on this poor soil if it is made fertile by fallen leaves and dead animals being recycled into the soil. When a rainforest is cut down, the nutrients in the soil wear out and are not replaced. Without trees, the soil dries up and is washed away, leaving the land like a desert.
