No major drug discovery programme conducted on SL’s flora despite viability: Chemistry don

21 Feb 2022

No major drug discovery programme conducted on SL’s flora despite viability: Chemistry don

21 Feb 2022

Notes need for investment in economic value of knowledge conservation and scientific research on endemic flora for medicinal agents

BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody Sri Lanka, among Asian countries, comparatively contains the most endemic flora per unit area, but despite its variety, richness and abundance, high percentage of endemic plants, and viable setting, has so far not been subjected to any major and systematic drug discovery programme. This observation was made by V. Karunaratne (attached to the Peradeniya University’s Chemistry Department) in an article cum letter to the Editor of the Vidyodaya Journal of Science on the “Potential pharmaceutical applications of endemic plants: When will Sri Lanka understand the economic value chain?” which was published in the said Vidyodaya Journal of Science 24 (2) in December 2021. “Small molecules have been a main concern of the pharmaceutical industry. Enormous libraries of compounds have been collected and they in turn nurture drug discovery related research. For example, big pharma, has in their libraries, compounds ranging from 500,000 to several million. When examining the drugs in the market, it is clear from where most are arriving: natural origin,” Karunaratne observed. According to D.J. Newman and G.M. Cragg’s “Natural products as sources of new drugs from 1981 to 2014”, out of the 1,328 new chemical entities approved as drugs between 1981 and 2014, only 359 were purely of synthetic origin; 326 were biologics (products produced from living organisms or ones that contain components of living organisms and include a wide variety of products derived from humans, animals, or microorganisms by using biotechnology); 94 were vaccines; and 549 were of natural origin or were developed from natural compounds; while of the anticancer compounds developed during the same period, only 23 were purely synthetic. Natural origin can, Karunaratne explained, count for three categories: unaltered natural products; a distinct mixture of natural products and natural product derivatives isolated from plants or other living organisms such as fungi (a fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic [any cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus] organisms that includes microorganisms), sponges (multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them), lichens (a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms – a fungus and an alga [predominantly aquatic, photosynthetic, and nucleus bearing organisms that lack the true roots, stems, leaves, and specialised multicellular reproductive structures of plants]), or microorganisms; and products modified through the application of medicinal chemistry. There are many examples covering a wide spectrum of diseases including anticancer drugs, steroidal hormones, cardiac glycosides (medicines for treating heart failure and certain irregular heartbeats) and antibiotics (medications that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria). Karunaratne added that even though emphasis on the use of medicinal plants has focused on the treatment of rather than the prevention of diseases, there are a considerable number of reports in recent times on research work concerning the use of medicinal plants and their constituents in disease prevention. A World Health Organisation Expert Group defined traditional medicine as the sum total of all knowledge and practises, whether justifiable or not, used in the diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental, or social disparity and relying exclusively on practical experiences and observations handed down from generation to generation, verbally or in writing. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre has designated Sri Lanka as a biodiversity hotspot. The indigenous flora comprises about 7,500 plant species including 3,154 recorded flowering plant species, out of which 894 (28%) are known to be endemic to the island; 336 recorded pteridophytes (vascular plants which have leaves known as fronds, roots and sometimes true stems, with tree ferns having full trunks, and they do not have seeds or flowers and instead reproduce via spores), which include 49 endemics; over 1,000 species of lichens belonging to the family Thelotremataceae (including 41 endemics); 575 mosses (small, non-vascular flowerless plants – endemism unknown); 303 liverworts (land plants that do not have a vascular system and produce spores instead of seeds – endemism unknown); 1,920 species of fungi; and some 900 species of algae. Endemic plants are within easy access as more than 90% of them are found in a small area of about 15,000 square kilometres in the low country wet zone and the montane (an eco region found above 1,000 metres in the Central highlands with these forests being cooler than lowland forests and having the ideal conditions for the growth of cloud forests) zone. A large number of plants with medicinal value has been listed in the Sinhalese Materia Medica. Karunaratne pointed out that in spite of this rich knowledge of plants, the country lags behind in investment in research into their medicinal value. For example, out of the 30 patents (mostly foreign) covering the compounds and extracts of Kothala Himbutu (Salacia reticulata) found in Sri Lanka and India, several Japanese patents claim anti diabetic properties of its aqueous extracts, claims which have been made notwithstanding the practice of using Kothala Himbutu in the treatment of high blood sugar (part of the traditional knowledge of Sri Lanka while E.H. Karunanayake, J. Welihinda, S.R. Sirimanne and G. Sinnadorai’s “Oral hypoglycaemic [low blood sugar level] activity of some medicinal plants of Sri Lanka” demonstrated its anti diabetic efficacy prior to the approval of these patents). “The economic value of the conservation of the knowledge on endemic flora for the benefit of the country is equally important. More scientific research must be done in order to investigate the endemic flora for medicinal and other important agents. The Central Bank in its annual reports treats the forest reserves only for its timber value. Although medicinal plants growing in forests appear as a minor discussion point, medicines from the endemic plants or their ecosystem services are ignored, as noted by N. Gunatilleke in the ‘Forest sector in a green economy: A paradigm shift in global trends and national planning in Sri Lanka’. There is little emphasis placed on this important aspect of the national heritage by both policymakers and grant agencies,” Karunaratne emphasised.

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No major drug discovery programme conducted on SL’s flora despite viability: Chemistry don

No major drug discovery programme conducted on SL’s flora despite viability: Chemistry don

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