Issue
Scientists at the Office of Arid Lands Studies' Southwestern Center for Natural Products Research and Commercialization (SCNPRC) in the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 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 crop and microorganisms that can be used to produce pharmaceuticals. Substances active against cancer are in particular demand.

What has been done?
The SCNPRC team selects plants, evaluates them chemically, tests products, performs biological assays, and determines how to grow and process plants on a commercial scale. In plants, active compounds may be located in the roots, shoots, leaves, flowers or seeds, and in microorganisms these may be intracellular or extracellular. In the case of pharmaceutically active ingredients, those showing particular promise will progress into preclinical, then clinical testing for efficacy. The SCNPRC group in collaboration with the UA Division of Plant Pathology, Departments of Pediatric Oncology and Surgery, the Arizona Cancer Center, Arizona State University and Josephine Ford Cancer Center is currently pursuing some plant- and microorganism-derived compounds for their in vivo activity in animal models. 

Impact
The material that has been pursued the most extensively 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. Three compounds isolated from a Chinese medicinal plant and Sonoran desert microorganisms are currently undergoing animal studies. 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
Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station–Natural Products Center
Arizona Disease Control Research Commission 
CAPCURE
Public Health Funding from NIH and NCI
Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Program
American Institute for Cancer Research 

Contact
Leslie Gunatilaka

SW Center for Natural Products
Research and Commercialization
The University of Arizona
250 E. Valencia Road
Tucson, AZ 85706
Tel.: (520) 741-1691 
FAX: (520) 741-1468
Email: leslieg@ag.arizona.edu
 

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