Scientist photo: WWF-Canon/Mauri Rautkari

Open your medicine cabinet and you’re likely to see a number of products derived from wild plants and animals. In fact, more than 25 percent of the medicines we rely on contain compounds derived from or modeled on substances extracted from the natural world.

The Pacific yew tree—once burned as trash in forestry operations—produces compounds found to be effective in treating ovarian, breast, and other types of cancers.

Animal-derived products are also important in medical treatments. For example, calcitonin, a hormone used for the treatment of osteoporosis, and protamine sulphate, an important medicine used in open-heart surgery, both come from salmon.

But microorganisms may well be the best-represented species in medicine cabinets around the world: More than 3,000 antibiotics, including penicillin and tetracycline, were originally derived from these tiny life forms.

As each of the above examples points out, all species—even those that seem “worthless,” like the Pacific yew—have the potential to provide us with useful or even life-saving products.