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Plant Research that Towers Above the Rest
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Sean Connery
had the right idea when he headed to the jungles of South Africa
to find a cure for cancer in the movie 'Medicine Man.' Dr. N.
Towers from the Department of Botany, University of British
Columbia has the same idea except, unfortunately, he doesn't get
millions of dollars like Sean Connery for his real life effort.
Instead, Dr. Towers' incentive is to find anti-viral, anti-fungal
and/or anti-bacterial compounds within plants that will not only
make life more comfortable, but will also save lives. This
research is important because of the growing need for new
therapeutic strategies as a result of the emergence of strains
that are resistant to current medicines.
When a plant is found that appears to have an effect on a
particular illness, the compounds within the plant have to be
separated and applied individually to assess the active
ingredient. Once assessed, the compound has to be identified. If
the active ingredient can be synthesized in a chemistry lab
without too much difficulty, then this is the course of action.
However, sometimes this is not possible and a tissue culture must
be developed. This entails taking some tissue samples from the
desired plant, applying hormones to enhance the development of
these specific cells, and extracting the target product from the
plant (roots, leaves or stems). The importance of tissue culture
technology is that it allows plant cells to be grown in the
laboratory on a large scale without having to resort to plant
growth in the field.
The plants collected for research vary in species and origin.
As a consequence, Dr. Towers and his graduate students have the
opportunity to travel to many countries in search of medicinal
plants. Some of the more recent places include Nepal, China,
Tanzania (Africa), and even our own backyard, Canada.
These plants gathered from all over the world are used
locally to treat a variety of ailments and diseases. For example,
plants used medicinally by the natives in British Columbia have
been recently found by the Towers' group to be anti-fungal
agents. In Nepal, plants were found to have medicinal properties
that treat colds, flues, rashes, skin blemishes or boils, wounds,
dysentery, diarrhoea, and hepatitis. Many of these plants yield
natural compounds which are photosensitive, so when used with
light they have enhanced effects. In Yunnan Province of China,
plants have been found that possess anti-viral activity when
simultaneously irradiated with light. In Tanzania, female
chimpanzees have been found to self-medicate themselves with
several species of the genus Aspilia . Further research has shown
that the Aspilia leaves contain chemicals that have the potential
to alleviate menstrual cramps, and to aid in pregnancy
complications and in childbirth.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is another area of
research in which this team at UBC is presently involved. For
example, a photosensitive cyclic compound with a sulfur atom in
the ring called aterthienyl (-T), derived from the common garden
marigold, has been found to stop the cytotoxic (cell toxicity)
effects of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV causes
AIDS and is the perpetrator that attacks and weakens our immune
system to allow opportunistic infections to take hold. When both
a -T and UV light are applied, the virus loses the ability to
reproduce and thereby loses the ability to spread. This discovery
has potential applications in blood sample decontamination.
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