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Refinements in methods of extraction and analysis, combined with increasing demand for naturalproducts, are fuelling interest in bioprospection and stimulating the search for active biomolecules of plant origin. The boreal forest, which represents 10% of the world's forest cover, is one of Canada's most significant natural resources. This forest biomass is also a vast treasure of active biomolecules, which for millennia has formed an integral part of the traditional pharmacopoeia ofaboriginal peoples throughout this land. Although about 25% of commercialized pharmaceutical products are based on molecules of plant origin, few of these come from ligneous forest biomass.