International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Pharmaceutical bioprospecting and its relationship to the conservation and utilization of bioresources*

Howard G. Wildman

AMRAD Discovery Technologies Pty. Ltd., 576 Swan Street, Richmond, Victoria, Australia 3121
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: There may be a perception amongst conservationists and the public that ‘large quantities’ of material are being collected from the bush or the oceans for screening for novel natural products. Whilst small amounts of material may be used for the initial stages of the drug discovery process, there is a clear desire within the pharmaceutical industry to conserve the world’s biota so that more species can be examined for novel chemical molecules and, that compounds of interest are produced via routes that do not involve the destructive and costly harvesting of samples. This presentation compares and contrasts biodiversity, conservation and sampling issues involved in examining different types of biota for the production of novel natural products of pharmaceutical value. Examples of some natural products produced by microorganisms, plants and other macroorganisms are discussed to illustrate the bioresource conservation and utilization requirements of the pharmaceutical industry and how these differ for the different types of organisms.

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