Phytochemical and ethnobotanical discovery of endemic American plants

美洲特有植物的植物化学和民族植物学发现

• 批准号: 7174-2010
• 负责人: Arnason, John
• 金额: $ 4.22万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=544400
• 关键词: Phytochemical; ethnobotanical; discovery; endemic; American

The purpose of this research is to study traditionally used plants scientifically in order to understand the nature of the phytochemical substances that makes them active. There is some urgency due to the rapidly disappearing knowledge of indigenous healers.We have a longstanding collaboration with Maya curanderos in Central America and Cree/Inuit healers in Northern Canada with whom we will work to document medicinal plant use for infections and neurodegenerative diseases, then test them in relevent lab assays. We are particularly interested in determining if antiinfective plants can inhibit bacterial biofilm formation, an emerging problem in medicine and industry for which we have few solutions. Similarly, we will assess if some traditionally used plants have the capacity to prevent neurodegerneration in standardized lab assays. The active plants and other plants that we previously identified as active in epilepsy and anxiety assays will be extracted for the purpose of isolation and identification of the active principles. Some of the more important plants that belong to the important blueberry-cranberry genus, Vaccinium, or the tropical pepper genus, Piper are being thoroughly investigated for phytochemical substances by advanced chemical instrumentation methods, NMR metabolomics and HPLC/MS/MS. The program will train 5 graduate students, contribute to our understanding of ethnobotany and potentially lead to new treatments and useful natural health products.

这项研究的目的是科学地研究传统使用的植物，以便了解使它们具有活性的植物化学物质的性质。由于土著治疗师的知识迅速消失，这是一个紧迫的问题。我们与中美洲的玛雅流浪者和加拿大北部的克里/因纽特治疗师有长期的合作，我们将与他们一起记录药用植物用于感染和神经退行性疾病，然后在相关的实验室分析中进行测试。我们特别感兴趣的是确定抗感染植物是否可以抑制细菌生物膜的形成，这是医学和工业中一个新出现的问题，我们几乎没有解决方案。同样，我们将在标准化的实验室分析中评估一些传统使用的植物是否具有预防神经变性的能力。我们将提取在癫痫和焦虑试验中被鉴定为活性的活性植物和其他植物，以分离和鉴定其活性原理。一些更重要的植物属于重要的蓝莓-蔓越莓属，Vaccinium，或热带辣椒属，Piper，正在通过先进的化学仪器方法，NMR代谢组学和HPLC/MS/MS对植物化学物质进行彻底的研究。该项目将培养5名研究生，有助于我们对民族植物学的理解，并有可能产生新的治疗方法和有用的天然保健产品。