Evening star., 1950-09-27
Explorers Hunt Plants
In Southwest and Mexico
Chemical Sought to Build Up
UItru-Precious Hormone
By Thomas R. Henry

Four Agriculture Department explorers
will scour the southwestern United
States and northern Mexico during the
coming year in search of plants whose
seeds may contain a chemical from
which may be built up the ultra precious
hormone cortisone.
1t has been found that seeds of the
yam, yucca, amaryllis and agavi families
contain nicroscopically minute amounts
of steroid which is quite similar to the
one which serves as a precursor in the
human body to this secretion of the
adrenal gland, isolation of which has
been the most revolutionary departure
in medicine in a decade of striking ad-
vances. There is hardly enough of it in
the world to treat one in a thousand OF
the arthritics-and apparently victims
of host of other diseases-for which 1T
now is the indicated treatment. This
situation does not seem likely to be i'm
proved in the near future.
Early in the research considerable
amounts of the steroid from which corti-
some is formed were found by Public
Health Service workers in the seeds Of
some plant of the strothanthus family
which is common throughout much OF
central Africa and southern Asia. The
Plant explorers were sent to Africa to
collect all the species whose seeds in
any way resembled those from which the
steroid had been obtained.
Dark Continent Secured.
They secured the Dark Continent from
Liberia through the Belgian Congo and
gathered seeds of IL Species including
one whose seeds seemed exact duplicates
of those sought. Six known species were
not obtained, but there was little likeli-
hood that they would be of any value.
There are altogether 81 species Of Stro-
thanthus, most of which are Asian trees
and shrubs and which are of no interest
in this connection. The African species
are all woody vines.
Hopes were dashed when the seeds
brought back were analyzed by the Pub
lie Health Service chemists. The largest
amounts of the cortisone precursor found
were minute fractions of that obtained
from the seeds first examined. Then
came the finding of the minute traces
in the seeds of the North American
plants.
The region to be covered is the center
of the yuccas and has many varieties Of
yams. The amaryllis family includes
most of the lilies The best known mem
ber of the agavi family is hemp. Probably
half the species of these families still
are unknown and grow in quite restricted
localities. There are. it is estimated.
about so species of yams alone in the
area.
Meanwhile, chemists are working in
tensively on the seeds of available types
Of these plants, but to date the work
has been quite disappointing. There are
minute amounts of diotigen, the steroid
sought, in the seeds of most of the lily
family. The yield is so sparse, however,
that it would not pay to extract the sub
stance and the additional amount Of
cortisone it would be possible to obtain
would be infinitesimal.
Yield Varies in Species.
But, even in these nicroscopically
small amounts. it has been found, the
yield varies greatly from species to
species and there is a good prospect Of
finding some single variety which will
far outrank all the others. Or some
seeds may yield appreciable amounts Of
a closely related steroid which will answer
the same purpose.
AS fast as the seeds are gathered they
will be identified botanically and sent to
the Northeastern Regional Laboratory Of
the Agriculture Department where chem
lists will make intensive analyses. Any
thing which has promise will be turned
over at once to the Public Health Ser
vice workers.
The explorers of the Foreign Plant
Introduction division of the Bureau Of
Plant Industry have been instructed to
gather up everything which can be in
cluded in the four plant families, no
matter how obscure or how remote its
location 1t is realized that finding Of
an abundant source of the cortisone pre-
cursor would be one of the greatest
boons that now could be conferred on
medicine.