Growing
solutions
Plants and how they can assist
in protecting the environment,
particularly in relation to new
approaches to crop protection,
will be discussed at a meeting,
‘Plant-derived natural products: a
resource for bioactive compounds’,
organised by SCI’s Pest
Management group in November 2006
There is an ongoing environmental debate
involving global warming, the overuse of fossil fuels,
reducing emissions, greener sources of energy and even
trapping CO2 underground or in sea water. We seldom,
if ever, hear of trapping CO2 in plants, a proposal that has
several additional advantages including the production
of oxygen. The SCI's Pest Management group's meeting
on 28 November 2006 at Syngenta, Jealott's Hill, Bracknell,
Berkshire, UK, will provide the opportunity to discuss
new plant-based approaches to crop protection as part
promoting the use of crops across a number of medical,
scientific and industrial applications.
We use micro-organisms to produce natural products
for use in, for example, medicine and agriculture, and
some argue that this is environmentally acceptable as
the products are natural. But what inputs are necessary
to produce the desired products, and what are the energy
and environmental penalties associated with disposing
of the unwanted components of the fermentation
process? Is there a better way? Are natural products
really that valuable?
Plants have been a source of shelter, weapons, nutrition,
medicines and crop protection agents for centuries.
Over 50% of all medication taken in the developed
world is derived from plants: aspirin, morphine, digitalin
and paclitaxel, for example. Some of the earliest
insecticides were extracted from plants and these are
still used in both organic and conventional farming
today, including azadirachtin, nicotine, karanjin, pyrethrum,
rotenone and ryanodine. In addition, a wide
range of plant extracts are used in crop protection as
plant growth regulators, fungicides and herbicides as
well as insecticides.
There is resurgent interest in traditional Chinese
plant-based remedies in search of novel active principles
and significant progress is evident. And, what is more,
plants do not consume fossil fuels, do not produce
persistent by-products and do not need massive investment
in new production facilities. There may be
problems associated with the cultivation of plants
that produce highly active, and possibly toxic,
compounds, but these are not insurmountable and
they will reduce the carbon footprint associated with
chemical manufacture.
We have derived a multitude of benefits from plants,
but there is still much more that can be done. Plants
are clean, environmentally friendly 'factories' that
produce a wealth of novel, biologically active chemicals
and, with time, we expect to discover an increasing
number of compounds with more and more uses.
The 'Plant-derived natural products: a resource for
bioactive compounds' meeting is organised by SCI's Pest
Management group with the support of the SCI
BioActive Sciences and Fine Chemicals groups, the Royal
Society of Chemistry, which will present David Evans
with its 2005 Industrial Medal at the event, and the
Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The meeting will consider the use of naturally occurring
compounds as products, how new products
with new modes of action can be developed from these
compounds and how simple chemical modification can
turn a moderately active compound into a world beater.
Increasingly, we are finding new ways to exploit the
myriad of compounds that are 'growing on trees' and
these will be covered in this meeting. The gathering
will provide an opportunity to debate all of these issues
and to identify the way forward, assess the opportunities,
applaud past successes and look to the promises
for the future.
Len Copping
Pest Management Group
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