Searching for Biocides in the Tropical Forests in El Edén Ecological Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Project director: Ana Luisa Anaya (aanaya@icfsun1.ifisiol.unam.mx)
Centro de Fisiologia Celular, UNAM.

An innovative chemical diversity project is being conducted at El Eden in parallel with the biodiversity assessment project. The objective of this project is to understand the distribution of secondary compounds in the different ecosystems through a chemical screening of the most important species found in the permanent plots. Biological interaction studies will complement the information of the selected species for chemical screening. Extracts will be done in the field for chemical analysis and different bioassays will be conducted for biological activity. The results of this research will contribute to a more complete understanding of the relationships between plant chemistry and animal diversity.

The potential utilization of some plant metabolites is important due to the urgent need to search for new biocides of natural origin. Advantages of these natural biocides lie in their quick and easy degradation, therefore their impact on the environment is minimal.

One of the major reasons to conserve nature is the existence of potential new chemicals that can be used in agriculture and medicine. Most of the organisms on earth is yet to be discovered as well as the bio-active compounds that they produce. So, chemical exploration can be a great contributor to biodiversity conservation.

In this project we test a methodology and research protocols that could be applied to other tropical areas. We make bioassays with seeds, fungi, nematodes, mycorrhizae, and insects to detect the potential bioactivity of metabolites produced by different organisms, particularly plants. In this way, we are preparing a long term project on the search of new natural products from the Yucatan Peninsula.