The Australian Phytochemical Survey was a collaborative study of the chemical constituents of native plants in Australia and Papua New Guinea which was conducted by

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

as well as chemists within the Australian university system. The project was primarily based around a broad search across a range of Australian ecosystems and plant species for new medicinal drugs as well as additional studies on plants which were poisonous to livestock. The survey was active from 1946 until 1974 with pharmacological testing of

alkaloids Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar st ...

initially being carried out by F.H. Shaw at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. The Australian Phytochemical Survey later also fostered collaborations with Smith, Kline & French, a pharmaceutical company from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

as well as National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

which was established in relation to the screening and study of potential anti-tumour agents arising through the survey. The survey was initiated as a search for chemical constituents of Australian plants which might hold potential for new drugs or other uses and it became a wide-ranging collaboration between the CSIR (an earlier name for

) and the universities. The Australian Phytochemical Survey brought critical mass to the study of plant chemistry and was a significant force behind the development of

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

in Australia. By the time of the survey's ultimate conclusion in February 1974 the chemical resources contained in approximately 2,500 Australian species of plant and 2,250 from

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

had been investigated with several hundred new

being isolated and identified along with publication of close to 2,000 research papers on plant constituents by Australian chemists.

References

{{reflist Phytochemicals CSIRO