10th December 2003

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Plants and fungi growing in India, China and Australia could provide the ingredients for new drugs to combat the growing threat from antibiotic-resistant superbugs - and help doctors and hospitals to treat bacterial infections more effectively, according to a University of Ulster expert.

Speaking after returning from a visit to the Biomedical Research Group of the Faculty of Science of the University of The Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, Professor Franklin Smyth, of the School of Biomedical Science at the Coleraine campus of the University, said research being carried out by both universities was at an early stage, but “initial results were encouraging”.

Using state-of-the-art analytical equipment. research teams at both universities are testing various plants and fungi found in Australia, particularly in Queensland, and used by the local Aboriginal population, to ascertain what chemical structures are behind their medicinal powers that could be used in the treatment of bacterial infections.

“In the West, we have used man-made antibiotics very successfully to treat bacterial infections - but now bugs are starting to become resistant to them. So we are now having to go back to age-old remedies and nature to produce drugs which can effectively beat these superbugs,” said Professor Smyth.

“We hope to find a compound that will be a natural product antibiotic that will treat bacterial infections now resistant to everyday man-made antibiotics given out by GPs - and help hospitals worried about the growing rise of super-bugs. But it is early days yet.”

Professor Smyth said the potential medicinal effects of plants in Australia could be very significant.

He said: “In Australia, many of the traditional Aboriginal uses of plants are now lost. Several reviews have attempted to record the traditional medicinal uses of Australian plants, with much of this information being collected from letters and records of early white settlers and also government reports. The active constituents of most these plants are still unknown.

“The use of medicines derived from plants extends across almost all cultures and over many centuries. In India and China herbal medicines are still widely used, increasingly now in the West, and so we are returning to the plant world to see if we can find antibiotics that can be used effectively to treat bacterial infections that are becoming totally resistant to current man-made antibiotics.”

As part of the research project, Dr Peter Brooks from the University of The Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, will link up with the research team at the Coleraine Campus for three months next year.

Professor Smyth said the possibility of other universities in India, New Zealand and in Chile becoming involved in the research to find natural product drugs to treat infections was also being explored.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk