In collaboration with Traditional Owners from North Queensland, researchers from the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) have identified native plant compounds that could soon alleviate the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Dr Phurpa Wangchuk, AITHM Senior Research Fellow and James Cook University (JCU) Lecturer, has devoted his career to investigating how native plants from around the world are used in traditional healing. “We have been trying to document some of this ancient knowledge that is slowly being lost, not only in the West but around the world, as people are forgetting the benefits of traditional medicines,” Dr Wangchuk said.
“Our goal is to document, protect and preserve this knowledge while also leveraging it to develop new medicines. That's where we, as researchers and chemists, play a crucial role.”
Dr Wangchuk’s research is funded by an Ideas Grant from the Australian Government’s National Health and Medicine Research Council. The grant allowed Dr Wangchuk and his colleagues to test medicinal plants that could provide potential treatments for IBD.
People with IBD generally experience chronic inflammation in their digestive tract, which can result in abdominal pain and diarrhoea, and in some cases, colorectal cancer. IBD is a chronic disease that can’t be cured. Patients are often prescribed corticosteroids or immunosuppressants, which can be harmful for the body.
As a fellow Chief Investigator, Mr Gerry Turpin from JCU’s Australian Tropical Herbarium, who is also an Aboriginal Elder of Mbabaram country west of the Atherton Tablelands over the Great Dividing Range, liaised with his community to document and preserve their valuable ethnomedical knowledge.
“I collected and identified plants, isolated molecules and examined whether they helped in alleviating IBD, all while being respectful with the communities, because it's their knowledge,” Mr Turpin said. “I was able to identify almost 170 medicinal plants, and we preselected five promising candidates.”
“Due to time constraints, we were only able to investigate three species. But we may look at other species at a later date,” Dr Wangchuk said.
The team selected one Persoonia species (a small tree), one Corymbia species (a big gum tree, also known as ‘bloodwood’), and one Tephrosia species, which is a perennial herb from the pea family.
“The active components in these plants were isolated by our postdoctoral chemists, Dr Matthew Perry, Dr Karma Yeshi and Dr Pornphimom Meesakul, as well as HDR student Mr Andres Ruiz Alvarez. We then tested the compounds’ anti-inflammatory properties, in collaboration with the AITHM’s Professor Alex Loukas and Dr Roland Ruscher’s team,” Dr Wangchuk said.
During this process, the researchers discovered six novel molecules new to science and identified four compounds that looked like promising candidates for future IBD drug development. “We are discussing with our JCU commercialisation office to jointly — JCU and Mbabaram community — patent some of those promising novel drug lead molecules,” Dr Wangchuk and Mr Turpin said.
Once the patents for these compounds have been filed, Dr Wangchuk is looking to found a startup and invite external investors to support the development of the potential IBD medications. The financial benefits will not only go to the patent holders, but also to the communities that provided the traditional knowledge for this research.
“No matter the outcome, for the Traditional Owners this collaboration is already a success,” Dr Wangchuk said, “as their medical knowledge has been documented and will not be forgotten.”