The university presented the book “Productos naturales, investigación y perspectivas en Ecuador” coordinated by professor Tatiana Mosquera and published by the Abya Yala university’s publishing house. The presentation was attended by university officials, professors, students majoring in biotechnology in our university and Universidad de Ferrara, Universidad de Pavia and other Latin American Institutions. 

Maria Sol Villagomez, vice president of our branch campus in Quito, explained that “six universities took part in this project: Universidad Central del Ecuador, Universidad de las Américas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Universidad de Guayaquil y Universidad del Litoral, Universidad de Ferrara in Italy and Universidad de Pavia in Cuba.”

Lorudes Pazmiño stressed the importance of joint work in order to develop medical science in the country; “our ancestors used natural medicine to mitigate diseases, for treatments and heal wounds. In the 17th century, Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino already discussed the value of medicinal plants and therefore the importance of botany in the production of medicine and its great contribution to pharmacology”, she said.

Paco Noriega said “we have great biodiversity, which gives us the opportunity to have a great botanic garden in small territory. We also have universities with great innovative equipment and laboratories which allows us create knowledge on the use of these resources”. 

Mateo Radice, from Universidad Amazonica del Ecuador, spoke about the country’s biodiversity and related research. Maria Elena Maldonado, director of the biotechnology undergraduate program, stressed the development of research on natural products at the university which have been published in “La Granja” journal.

Finally, Tatiana Mosquera explained that the aim was to collect research carried out in our country on the potential of natural resources. She thanked the support of the following research groups: biotechnology applied to natural resources, development of applied sciences and the university officials.