Meeting Abstract

S6.9  Monday, Jan. 5  Bilogical screening assays for plant secondary metabolites HARVEY, A.L.; University of Strathclyde a.l.harvey@strath.ac.uk

Natural products have been the most productive source of the active ingredients for medicines throughout history. Many of these have been derived from chemicals produced by plants. Some were discovered from exploring traditionally used herbal remedies; some have been found by the process of random screening, i.e. testing a random collection of compounds for activity on biological assays that relate to the intend therapeutic use. The same approaches are available to ecologists: studying samples of plants eaten by animals for activity in various biological systems or testing random samples of plants collected from the area under study. Standard bioassay techniques will be described in the presentation. These are generally biochemical in nature, using isolated enzymes or proteins such as receptors for neurotransmitters, or based on cells in tissue culture where cell growth, proliferation or death are typically studied. Biological effects of plant secondary metabolites can be detected by sensitive read-outs based on light absorbance or on use of fluorescent or chemiluminescent markers in the assays. Since most assays can be run in very small volumes, relatively little test material is required. Because of its use in drug discovery research and in the growing field of chemical genetics, the technology for such studies is becoming more accessible for academic researchers and it should be possible to adapt it for pharm-ecology purposes.