CURES THAT RELY ON FLOWER POWER

FIELDS of colourful wild flowers grown for the pharmaceutical industry
could one day be decorating the British countryside, it emerged yesterday.

Researchers are going back to nature in the search for new medical
compounds, and the results are so promising that they could provide a
lifeline for beleaguered farmers.

A company in Aberystwyth, Wales, is pioneering the search for
therapeutic compounds in British plants. Among those being
investigated by Molecular Nature are bluebells, dandelions, daffodils,
wood anemones and sea pinks, all of which are rich in potentially
useful chemicals.

Daffodils produce a substance being tested as a possible treatment for
Alzheimer's disease. Bluebells and sea pinks are thought to contain
compounds that might be helpful in treating TB and leprosy.

The aim is to isolate a wide range of compounds and store them in a
chemical "library" available to drug companies.

Instead of adopting the usual pharmaceutical approach of screening
hundreds of thousands of chemicals in the search for new drug leads,
the Molecular Nature team has turned to local folklore and herbalism.

Dr Maria Ines Chicarelli-Robinson said at the British
Association Science Festival at Sheffield University: "We're
using folk medicine and local knowledge together with any
phytochemistry studies that have been done. Very few studies
of British plants have been carried out.

"In Wales there is a thousand years of history of using herbal
medicines. Some information can be found in old books and we're also
going back to the locals who have lived there for many years."

She thought it possible that in the future farmers' fields might be
given over to growing pharmaceutical plants. "We've already had
farmers volunteering to help us, " she said.