Competitive Agricultural Systems in a Global Economy
Specialty Products from Desert Plants

Issue

Scientists at the Office of Arid Lands Studies' Bioresources Research Facility (BRF) in the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture are working with other universities, with pharmaceutical companies and with other commercial entities to develop new biological and industrial products. The ultimate goal of this collaborative research program is to locate specialty chemicals in indigenous desert plants that can be grown as industrial cash crops. Substances active against cancer are in particular demand.

What has been done?

The BRF team selects plants, evaluates them chemically, tests products, performs biological assays, and determines how to grow and process plants commercially. Active compounds may be located in the roots, shoots, leaves, flowers or seeds of a plant. In the case of pharmaceutically active ingredients, those showing particular promise will progress into preclinical, then clinical testing for efficacy. In 1999, after examining several thousand desert plant species over the past seven years, natural products scientist Joseph Hoffmann and his team found two substances so promising for pharmaceutical use that the original patents have been formally revised and submitted as full patents for both U.S. and international coverage. One has topical activity against skin cancer and is now demonstrating other potential pharmaceutical uses. This collaborative group is now studying the impact of the other compound on the current testing model for new anti-cancer drugs. They are also pursuing other leads, including several more that are in the pipeline for in vivo testing.

Impact

The material that has been pursued the most extensively over the past year resulted in a new patent filed in May 1999 and an international patent filed in October 1999. This research has been pursued as a collaborative and multi-institutional project that ultimately could have a significant impact on the treatment and prevention of topical tumors, as well as other biological uses. The material obtained during the latter part of 1998 for the other lead is sufficient to initiate in vivo testing during February, 2000. This is part of an ongoing effort to find unique applications from desert plants with development at the same time to allow for conservation and maintenance of the delicate desert ecosystem.

Funding

Public Health Service Funding NIH, NCI, including cooperation with Eli Lilly and Company; private foundation funding

Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station--Bioresources Research Facility

Contact

This report is one of 29 impact statements submitted by the University of Arizona College of Agriculture to the USDA's 1999 CSREES Science and Education Impacts database in Washington, D.C. An impact statement is a brief summary, in lay terms, of the economic, environmental and/or social impact of a land-grant program. It states accomplishments and their payoff to society.
Located at http://ag.arizona.edu/impacts/2000/desertbrf.html
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