Though also quite controversial due to the environmental degradation that is created by any industrial interest in the natural world, pharmaceutical researchers are increasingly turning to plants and other naturally created compounds for the development of new pharmaceuticals (Newman & Cragg 2007). As research continues into this relatively new and unexamined area of pharmaceutical potential, it is likely that many profound new discoveries will be made. One particular piece of research that examined twenty-five years' worth of empirical and primary research in the area of naturally derived pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical compounds came to some startling conclusions. Though plants have been a major source of chemicals used in a variety of human industries, including in the pharmaceutical industry, these researchers concluded that is microbial interactions taking place on host plants in their natural settings that is often the source of the desired compounds rather then their having been derived directly from or by the plant itself (Newman & Cragg 2007). This assertion is not entirely new, but it is made most compelling by the extent to which these researchers are able to provide details supporting this theory and indeed points to an exciting new area of pharmaceutical and environmental research that is truly at the heart of many scientific discourse communities, including the pharmaceutical community.

Personal Intersection

My own personal interests have long included a desire to improve man's relationship with and indeed as a part of nature. This does not have to include a giving up of the many luxuries and amenities with which mankind has adorned itself often at the expense of nature, but rather I am interested in discovering how man can benefit from nature without destroying it. There is a definite place for this interest in man's symbiosis with nature in the pharmaceutical discourse community, as indeed the discovery of new pharmaceutical compounds relies quite heavily on the preservation...

Learning more about how various natural compounds are formed and preserving the environment and organisms that produce compounds currently recognized as useful by the pharmaceutical industry would show a clear benefit to mankind as well as to nature, thus remaining in keeping with my overriding belief that man's benefit need not come at he cost of nature's degradation. These research areas would be of a great deal of interest to me as I further pursue my knowledge of the pharmaceutical world in general and of the pharmaceutical discourse community specifically.
Conclusion

The pharmaceutical discourse community is itself a broad and diverse community with many smaller communities yet a great deal of overlap in the linguistic codes and discourse areas between them. Becoming a part of this large and diverse discourse community is at once encouraging and slightly overwhelming; there is such a wealth of information and a plethora of research areas involved in developing pharmaceutical knowledge that a narrow focus can seem at times impossible. The above discussion and specific areas of focus help to narrow the field of discourse in which this researcher hopes to become more permanently engaged.

References

Humer, F. (2005). Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry -- Future Prospects. Zu-rcher Volkswirtschaftliche Gesellschaft. Accessed 27 November 2010. www.roche.com/fbh_zvg05_e.pdf

Newman, D. & Cragg, G. (2007). Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs over the Last 25 Years. Journal of Natural Products 70(3), pp. 461-77.