Normally, bioprospecters travel to foreign lands to uncover natively known plant-based treatments to illness and disease. The same goes for Maria Ines Chicarelli, founder of Molecular-Nature Ltd (MNL), however, the Brazilian has set her sights on plants found in the west coast of Wales (UK). MNL is currently developing libraries of compounds made from extracts of such common plants as rhubarb (Rheum sp.), clover (Trifolium spp.) and daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). Chicarelli told reporters ‘very little is known about British plants. We are finding interesting molecules in well known plants, even in weeds. We do not need to go further afield.’ As part of the research program, Chicarelli and colleagues sifted through ancient documents at the Welsh National Library, searching for notes of ancient locally derived remedies. [Pickard, J. (2001) Financial Times (London), 5 March, p. 17]. TS