Here is another reason to recycle your Christmas tree: It can be used to fight disease. A company has developed a way to use the needles from discarded Christmas trees to manufacture shikimic acid, a significant ingredient in Tamiflu, an antiviral drug also known as oseltamivir. The drug is used in fighting outbreaks of bird influenza. Though shikimic acid exists in many plants, not all plants have enough to make extracting it commercially worthwhile. Pine, spruce, and fir needles, however, can yield as much as 40 grams per kilogram of needles.
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