Plant Medicine

LAWRENCE, Kansas-A University of Kansas professor is researching the disease-fighting compounds in plants like sunflowers and jimsonweed and claims that such plants may be used to develop valuable new antibiotics.

Lester Mitscher, professor of medicinal chemistry, said he began his research ten years ago because American Indians had used such plants to cure diseases.

Mitscher said new antibiotics must be found because existing ones lose their effectiveness when used over a long period. Antibiotics now are prepared from soil microorganisms.

Pharmaceutical firms have expressed interest in Mitscher's findings and have approved testing of the plants for possible commercial production of antibiotics, Mitscher said.