One man’s quest for plant constituents of therapeutic value

Abstract

I feel most honored to be selected the Distinquished Economic Botanist for 1989. I am well aware of those who have been chosen before me, many of whom I know personally and hold in great respect, and thus feel proud to have my name included on this roster of Distinquished Economic Botanists. While I feel honored to be selected for your award, I feel very humble about it for I know that many of you sitting in the audience are more worthy of such an award than I. I am reminded of the story of the man invited to give a talk in Texas. Soon after the man got into his talk, he noticed a Texan in the front row take a gun out of a holster and examine the bullet cylinder. The speaker stopped his talk and said to the Texan, "Sir, I can stop this talk anytime you want me to; you only need to let me know when you want me to stop." The Texan said, "You go right ahead and talk as long as you desire. You are a guest here and we want to treat you well. The guy I want to see is the person who invited you here." So, If you are wondering why I was chosen for this award, the guys you are looking for are, I suspect, some of my friends from the University of Illinois. I have titled this talk, "One Man's Quest for Plant Constituents of Therapeutic Value." It could have been titled "One Man's Frustration in Seeking Plant Constituents of Therapeutic Value." It could also be titled "Through the Years," for to some extent it gives a perspective on the development of some aspects of research in pharmacognosy. It is my story along with some undergraduate students, my graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and a few colleagues with whom I collaborated through the years. It begins in academic year 1946-1947 when I was in the junior class of the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy. I carried out a study in competition for the Kilmer Prize, an award given to an undergraduate student in pharmacy judged to have done the most significant research problem in pharmacognosy for the year. At that time the flavonoid glycoside named rutin was popular for treatment of capillary fragility. The major source at that time was the aboveground portion of the buckwheat plant, Fagopyrum esculentum. There was a need for a better source of the glycoside so, for my research problem, I set about trying to find a better source of rutin in plants growing in Kansas. I examined a large number of plants that had a yellow or yellowish-orange color in some plant part; I even investigated wheat straw. The best source of rutin I could find was in several species of goldenrod, Solidago. However, this was not a better source than F. esculentum. Mind you, in 1947 it was considerably more difficult to identify a plant constitutent than it is today for NMR and mass spectra were not known in those days. Our school did not have an I.R. spectrophotometer, nor did I have access to one. Chromatography was not used at that time either. The only way I