Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MISSISSIPPI
(N/A)
UNIVERSITY,MS 38677
Performing Department
PHARMACOGNOSY
Non Technical Summary
Timber protection from fungi, termites and oxidation is currently based primarily on the use of highly toxic mineral and petroleum byproduct fungicides and insecticides. Arsenic, creosote, and toxic pesticides are still widely used all over the world, including the United States, as wood preservatives. Analytical studies in several countries have shown serious contamination of soil, ground- and surface water with various toxic components originating from commercial wood perservatives. In addition these highly toxic wood preservatives have been found to directly threaten the health of timber and lumber industry workers as well as nearby populations. Consumers using timber products protected with toxic chemicals can also be affected. There is an urgent need to discover and develop novel, non-toxic materials for timber protection. Natural products and their analogs are promising candidates for such materials. The primary goal of this project is to develop new, inexpensive
and environmentally friendly timber preservatives based on natural product models and their synthetic production from existing agriculture and petroleum streams. Natural products produced by marine plants and invertabrates to protect themselves and which are inexpensive to produce commercially will be examined for their ability to serve as new preservatives for wood products. By increasing the value and life expectancy of low-grade timber products in the United States this product will clearly benefit both the consumer and those industries involved in timber production. The consumer will gain significantly.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Identify novel, prototype wood-preservatives using natural products from plants and marine organisms to overcome the serious shortcomings of existing products. Current technology requires the use of arsenic and cresol in masses sometimes equal to that of the actual timber. Identify target molecules from the literature and from our own library of natural products possessing insecticidal, antifungal and antioxidant properties with molecular structures that could be prepared cost-effectively in large scale using existing agricultural and petroleum streams. Prepare these target molecules synthetically or semi-synthetically utilizing inexpensive commercially available materials. Patent and publish the improved preservatives and transfer the technology to industry through collaborations with Osmose Inc., an established leader in the wood preserving industry.
Project Methods
The necessary plant material and marine organisms for the project will be collected in several locations around the world by our routine collection trips in the Department. Plant material (trees) will be selected based on trees density and durability and the observed resistance to insect and fungi. The sapwood and heartwood of the selected trees will be extracted in the first order although the leaves and roots will be also a subject of our studies. Marine organisms will be selected based on the observed defensive mechanisms in their environment. Those organisms producing secondary metabolites with antifouling activity are especially interesting due to observed resistance to marine-boring worms. Crude extracts obtained by extraction of plants and marine organisms will be preliminary tested for antifungal activity on TLC by spraying the plates with corresponding fungal spores. They will also be screened for insecticidal (against termites) activity. For those extracts,
which show positive results in these tests the fractionation and isolation of secondary metabolites will be performed by column chromatography, preparative TLC or HPLC. Partially purified fractions and pure compounds will be screened for antifungal, insecticidal, and antioxidant activity. The structure of all isolated secondary metabolites will be established by the compilation of various analytical methods including spectroscopic methods (NMR, IR, UV, MS), X-ray crystallography, CD, ORD and other modern techniques. The most promising compounds selected from preliminary screens will be then totally synthesized or semi-synthesized to obtain gram quantities of compounds necessary to perform additional bioassays including in vitro and in vivo toxicity tests.