BY INGRID BROWN Associate Editor -- Special Assignment browni@jamaicaobserver.com Monday, March 23, 2015
THE University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) is hoping to make its mark on the local pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries as it advances research on two endemic plants from the Cockpit Country with the aim of producing a drug to reduce inflammation and infection.
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| Bio-organic Chemist and lecturer at UTech Dr Andrew Lamm (right) talks about the research that he and graduate student O’Brien Brown are conducting on two endemic plants from the Cockpit Country. They say they are hoping to complete a major stage of the research by the end of this month. (PHOTOS: MICHAEL GORDON) |
Bio-organic chemist and lecturer at UTech Dr Andrew Lamm and graduate student O'Brien Brown say they are hoping to complete a major stage of the research by the end of this month.
The duo said over the past few years they have been looking at various plant extracts to identify their biological activity as some of them contain anti-bacterial, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
"We have isolated two compounds... hopefully from one of these plants we will be able to develop maybe some direct pharmacological agent or nutraceutical, cosmeceutical treatment that might help to reduce inflammation and treat infection," Lamm said.
"Right now we have isolated the compound and done the purification and we have the pure substances so we are trying to find out the actual molecular structure of it," Lamm explained.
Meanwhile, Brown said the compound could open new doors as it is a novel discovery.
The process, he said, is 90 per cent complete on one of the active plants and as such he is getting ready to publish the findings in a journal.
And based on the findings, the duo say they are hopeful that the research will yield the expected results. more
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