"Nature is amazing". If you ask any of my family and friends, they’d tell you that was my favourite saying.

Whether I’m biting into a crisp, new season apple, watching a thunderstorm from my backyard or throwing spices into my famous Indian curry, I’m always in awe of what mother nature has created, and how diverse and wonderful it really is.

And the things nature produces aren’t just pretty or piquant, they can be potent.

I was astonished to discover that approximately two thirds of medicines on the market are made from natural compounds, the other third are created using synthesised versions of naturally occurring ingredients.

I guess you only have to look back at some of the major medical breakthroughs of our time to realise that nature has provided the basic ingredients, we’ve just been able to extract and combine them.

Asprin for example, is originally derived from Willow Bark and Meadow Sweet, Penicillin came from a mould, Codeine is an alkaloid found in the Opium poppy. 

More recently, researchers at Adelaide’s own Flinders Medical Centre discovered that a compound found in the root of a Dahlia Flower, of all things, acts as a strong booster for vaccines, in particular the Flu Vaccine.

Dr Nikolai Petrovsky, who led his team in this remarkable discovery says that "We humans simply cannot match what nature is able to do."

"There are possibly millions of naturally occurring substances in the world which could cure some of our most debilitating diseases."

Across the road at Flinders University, scientists are examining whether the purple dye from a sea snail kills cancer cells.

Their early laboratory studies suggest that fifty to one hundred percent of leukemia cells are killed using the extract, which the snail itself uses to protect it’s eggs.

Meanwhile, researchers in the U.S are examining a sap from the "Guggul tree", a plant native to India, which is showing some promise in reducing cholesterol.

The plants been used in India for hundreds of years to treat numerous disorders, and could be a natural supplement for people trying to lower their cholesterol levels.

Studies like these beg the question: if there’s a cure for almost everything in nature, then why are we destroying it?

The American Institute of Medical Sciences suggests that earth is home to at least 250,000 species of plants and up to 30 million species of insects, with uncalculated numbers of funghi, algae and bacteria.

And, to this day, more than half the world's population still depends entirely on plants for medicines.

Yet latest estimates from the US College of natural sciences suggest that the rate of plant and animal extinction in the world has never been higher, as much as one thousand times greater than any other time in our history.

Scientists fear the world could lose up to half its species this century.

The Amazon rainforest is being cleared at a shocking rate. In just 6 years, an area larger than Greece, some 150,000 square kilometres, has been destroyed for cattle and farming.

Closer to home, Australia has two of the worlds 33 major extinction hotspots, in Southwestern Australia and the East Coast, where up to 80 percent of species have been lost.

And with the growing impact of Global Warming, who knows how many more species will be gone forever.

One has to wonder what possible cures for diseases have been annhiliated along with it.

Our world is becoming less diverse, and I can’t help but worry about what kind of long term impact it will have on the most prolific species on the earth, human beings.

Let’s not destroy what could save us.