From vermontguardian.com, posted July 05 05
"DWINDLING FROG POPULATION THREATENS MEDICAL PROGRESS
QUITO, Ecuador – A chemical once used on arrowheads to paralyze and kill Spanish colonizers in Ecuador has been isolated to produce a painkiller 200 times more powerful than morphine without that drug's addictive and toxic side effects. But pharmaceutical companies will have to work fast, since the famous “poison frogs” from which the chemical epibatidine can be extracted are rapidly disappearing.
Frogs are a traditional source of medicine and food for many of Ecuador's Indians. Many varieties produce chemicals with powerful properties. But both frogs and toads are becoming extinct all over the world, according to Luis Coloma, a herpetologist in Ecuador, the country with the third greatest diversity of amphibians. “It's the same magnitude event as the extinction of the dinosaurs," he said.
At least 40 percent of the 3,046 amphibian types in the Americas, home to 53 percent of known species, are endangered, according to a recent report, Disappearing Jewels, issued by NatureServe...."
You can read the rest at: http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/0904/0705.shtml#article3
www.natureserve.org. sorry no can hyperlink.