The Amazon rainforest, that covers much of North-Western Brazil and extends into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. A treasure-trove of biodiversity and an ecological marvel, it produces nearly 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen.

   The Amazon, approximately half the size of the United States, is a massive carbon sink i.e., it contains 90 to 140 billion metric tons of carbon. It sucks in carbon and other greenhouse gases, thus regulating the temperature of the whole planet.

The remarkable plants of the Amazon forest and their healing powers

    Since millennia, human beings have used plants, insects and other organisms as cures for various diseases. The Amazon rainforest, comprising more than 80,000 species of plants, is the most abundant greenhouse on the planet. Interestingly, it is also a vast repository of medicine; around 25 per cent of....