Biodiversity conservation and drug discovery in Suriname. Explorations
in nature's combinatorial library*
David G. I. Kingston
Department of Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Abstract: The preservation of tropical rain forests is an important
goal both for the intrinsic value of their cultural and biological diversity
and for the well-being of the forest peoples who make these forests
their home. In addition, tropical forests are potential sources of new
pharmaceutical products which can only be found by chemical prospecting
in nature's genetically encoded combinatorial library. A collaborative
program to discover potential pharmaceuticals in the rain forest of
Suriname is described as part of an effort to integrate biodiversity
conservation and drug discovery with economic development. Progress
on this project will be reported, including results obtained on the
isolation of bioactive diterpenoids, quinones, alkaloids, and polyketides,
and the benefits of this general approach to biodiversity and drug discovery
will be discussed.
*Lecture presented at the 22nd IUPAC International
Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products, São Carlos, Brazil,
3-8 September 2000. Other presentations are published in this issue,
pp. 549-626.
