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.

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.

“I am very hopeful and very excited about the potential of it,” Dr Lamm said, adding, “we have other companies here in Jamaica that actually look at bio-activity, but what we want to do as the national university is to bring that to the best benefit of the whole nation.”

Lamm said once the research is completed, the university will be looking to protect the product following which they will be able to publicly identify the two plants.

Associate Vice-President of Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship at UTech Dr Paul Ivey said the university cannot publicise the name of the plants just now until it has moved to protect its intellectual property rights.

As such, the next stage of the process, he said, will be to examine the various ways the intellectual property can be utilised and exploited.

“We can go with a trade secret or a patent or a

non-disclosure agreement in terms of a licence… since we are not like those overseas universities that could spin off a company and start promoting nutraceuticals as a subsidiary, but we could license the technology for use to a nutraceutical company and royalties,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Lamm said a lot of research is currently being conducted, in the recently established natural products research lab, on endemic plants in the Cockpit Country which is under threat from climate change, encroaching agriculture, settlement, and mining.

According to Dr Lamm, the foliage that grows there is unique as it consists of plants which are not found anywhere else, and which have never been studied.

“So the natural products research lab looks to investigate these plants and discover the different pharmaceutical uses that could be hiding in some of them,” he said.

Lamm, who was speaking with the Jamaica Observer ahead of UTech’s recently held Research and Technology Day, explained that there are several other uses for these plants that are yet to be identified.

There is a nutraceutical side, he said, which could also develop into the pharmaceutical side.

“It could be using them as agriculture, whether as feed stock to replace soy and corn which we import, or to add value in terms of nutraceuticals,” he said, adding: “Some of these plants could be used in the nutraceutical industry to provide new teas, or new blends to treat various ailments.”

Dr Lamm said the reason that a lot of the endemic plants in the Cockpit Country have not been studied is because of the terrain. However, he believes this has to be changed because of the benefits to be had from many of these plants which are worth preserving.

“Because of its uniqueness, that area should be preserved and there are tangible, valuable things that can be extracted from it that are renewable. So hopefully, by the end of it we can say a particular plant can be used in this other fashion and could become the basis of a new crop,” he said.

He noted that his vision is not only for UTech, but for national development and for residents of the area who would be able to expand their agricultural endeavours by using these crops for other purposes.

“More than 70 per cent of Jamaicans use plants for medicinal purposes,” Lamm said, pointing out that there are economic opportunities in extracting plants’ properties.

“It is not that I am necessarily looking to make money off it, but I have seen in the past where several compounds, several inventions that were pioneered here, especially in the nutraceutical and medicinal area, were taken overseas and used there and we have never got any benefit from it whatsoever, and that I would want to stop,” he said.

He explained that Jamaica is a hotspot for plants that have yielded biologically active molecules which eventually become pharmaceutical agents.

“Jamaica is one of the areas where you find great diversity, and with that great diversity comes a plethora of different biological molecules which interact with the living systems in many different ways,” Lamm said.

While many of the endemic plants are currently being used for home remedies, especially among the Maroons in the Cockpit Country, Lamm believes that the potential for use extends far beyond what currently obtains.

“There are those that can still be used in folklore medicine, but some, we believe, have potential to be produced and extracted on a large scale for a nutraceutical industry,” he told the Observer.

He noted that their work with some of these plants has produced evidence that there are additional benefits to be had.

“It is not always in the areas that people claim they are, but there is some biological influence at work in those plants,” he explained.

He noted that while Jamaica does not have the financial resources to develop pharmaceutical drugs, overtime, with correct collaborations and protection, the country will be able to move into that market.