It's only natural

Dr Yeap Foo

For millennia people have taken natural remedies, often without understanding exactly how they work or how effective they are, if at all.

And despite the significant advances in synthetic chemistry over the last 100 years, well over half of all pharmaceuticals on the market today are derived or synthesised from naturally occurring compounds found in plants or animals.

A modern, evidence-based approach to medicine has enabled scientists to extract, isolate, modify and in some cases amplify active compounds within such traditional natural remedies.

It has also enabled scientists to show exactly how these compounds benefit human health and it is clear that robust clinical data published in peer-reviewed journals can be a very compelling marketing tool.

Point in case: the health benefits of cranberries. Dr Foo says it has been known for a long time that cranberry juice inhibits urinary tract infection, “but the compounds responsible were a complete mystery.”

Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey were aware of Dr Foo’s expertise in isolating, identifying and describing complex, naturally occurring chemical compounds and contracted him to apply his skills to analysing cranberries in the late 1990s.

He isolated and elucidated the chemical structure of the doubly-linked condensed tannins (known as A-type proanthocyanidins) that are responsible for inhibiting the adhesion of E. coli bacteria in the urinary tract, and published his results in The New England Journal Of Medicine and The Journal Of Natural Products.

On the back of this scientific endorsement, the global trade in cranberry products increased by 150 per cent in ten years and diversified into juices, dried cranberries and cranberry extract. Globally, the cranberry industry is worth US$2.5 billion per annum and the fruit’s new-found popularity prompted the genesis of a New Zealand cranberry industry based on the West Coast of the South Island.

Cranberries haven’t been the only natural product to attract Dr Foo’s keen mind. Over the years he has analysed and isolated compounds in everything from Douglas-fir bark to evening primrose seed residue and purple passionfruit skins.

Part of the key to his success is that very few chemists are game to attempt the challenging task of isolating and describing the chemical structure of the rather complex compounds present in some fruits and plant materials.

“Some of these compounds have a high molecular weight while others are polymeric in nature and involve heterogeneous building blocks which are connected to one another in different ways. There are very few chemists around the world with the patience for this sort of work,” said Dr Foo.

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2007 American cranberry giant Ocean Spray presented him with the cooperative’s eponymously-titled award for his “Outstanding Contribution in Nutrition Research and Food Science”.

And in recognition of his many achievements over an illustrious career that began at IRL’s predecessor, the DSIR, in 1971, he was presented with the Royal Society of New Zealand Science and Technology medal in 1998 and the Marsden Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists in 2008.

In his current research he is hoping for a repeat of the cranberry project. In collaboration with US-based researcher Professor Ronald Watson, he is assessing feijoas with regard to their potential for useful bioactive compounds that might contribute to today’s health needs.

Originating in South America, feijoas are popular in New Zealand, but aren’t favoured for export because they don’t store well and this means they are largely unknown overseas.

“Globally consumers are keen to try new fruit with proven health benefits and we knew that any extract derived from feijoas would find regulatory hurdles relatively easy to overcome. This is because feijoas have a long history of human consumption and safety,” Dr Foo says.

So far his research has found relatively high levels of potentially significant polyphenols, which are associated with numerous beneficial effects on human health. While he completes his study, Professor Watson is simultaneously conducting clinical trials in the US to assess the beneficial effects on patients with a variety of conditions, many of which are related to the ageing process.

With patents pending, Dr Foo is a little cagey on naming the conditions or diseases the extract will target but says results so far are “very promising and the extract has the potential to target several conditions at once”.

If they are anything like the results he achieved with cranberries, feijoas could soon be regarded worldwide as a new ‘superfruit’ and New Zealand’s fledgling industry could become a significant export earner.

Asked how the sprightly 69-year-old stays interested in his work, he quotes the father of Western medicine, Hippocrates: “ ‘Let food be your medicine.'"