Defining Diversity in Diterpenoids in the genus Coleus: mining phylogeny for medicinal applications

植物提供了关键的药物，并被视为传统药物，但它们作为药物来源的潜力尚未开发，在很大程度上仍未得到开发。本项目将探索与之关系密切的热带植物蕨属和蕨属（Lamiaceae），这些植物已被广泛用作影响心血管、呼吸和神经系统疾病的药用植物，并具有抗微生物、抗炎和抗癌作用。这些类群中的许多物种尚未对其潜在的药用价值进行评估，也没有对生物活性二萜的发生和分布进行评估。对二萜类植物的发生和分布的认识有限，阻碍了对二萜类植物多样性和进化的进一步研究，也阻碍了对彩堇属和紫堇属植物及其成分药用价值的科学研究。该项目将通过挖掘Coleus的系统发育多样性来开发新药，从而解决这些知识空白。将选择物种，以揭示合成生物活性化学物质（二萜）所涉及的生物合成途径的广度，并阐明其当前和潜在的药用用途。这一新知识将为生物多样性的价值提供进一步的证据，并为植物的保护和可持续管理提供激励，从而与防止生物多样性丧失的战略保持一致。

Plants have provided key pharmaceuticals and are valued as traditional medicines, but their untapped potential as sources of medicines remains largly unexplored. This project will explore species of the closely related tropical plant genera Plectranthus and Coleus (Lamiaceae), which have been used extensively as medicinal plants affecting diseases of the cardiovascular, respiratory and nervous systems, and have shown anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. Many species in these groups have not been assessed for their potential medicinal value, nor for the occurrence and distribution of biologically active diterpenoids.Limited knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of diterpenoids is impeding further research on the diversity and evolution of diterpenoids, and the scientific basis for the medicinal uses of Coleus and Plectranthus species and their constituents.The project will address these knowledge gaps by mining the phylogenetic diversity of Coleus for new medicinals. Species will be selected, to uncover the breadth of biosynthetic pathways involved in synthesising bioactive chemicals (diterpenoids), and shed light on their current and potential medicinal uses. This new knowledge will provide further evidence for the value of biodiversity and unlock incentives for the conservation and sustainable management of plants, thus aligning with strategies to prevent biodiversity loss.