PSNA Newsletter 2psna-online.org/PSNAoldweb/newslet/vol42(2).pdf · The Happy Wanderer ... 4,000 members of the press. The ma-jor outcome was a document, the Plan ... elling to the

PSNA NEWSPhytochemical Society of North America

Sociedad Fitoquímica de América del Norte

Société Phytochimique de L’Amerique du Nord

Volume 42, Number 2 October 2002

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

continued on page 22

IN THIS ISSUE

The Challenge

The Happy Wanderer✔

2002 Annual Meeting - Summary, Pictures, and More!✔

Best Student Paper Award Winners✔

✔ The Unknown Phytochemist Strikes Back

Neish Symposium Speaker Profiles✔

Will mankind be able to create a bal-ance between sustainable develop-ment and the exploitation ofbiodiversity? Will our modern socie-ties find a way to respect our planetas did the ancient people of the world,and at the same time improve the wel-fare of those living in poverty and pro-tect the environment? Undoubtedly,this is a major challenge. Mankindmust be able to bring welfare andhealth to all people around the world,and at the same time preserve ournatural resources for generations tocome. Phytochemists around theworld and our Society have the greatopportunity to participate in achiev-ing this goal.

Recently, two events haveoccurred. These events were separatedby thousands of kilometers, but werevery close in their philosophy andgoals. One of them took place last Julyin Mérida, México where our Societyaccomplished the annual ritual of get-ting together and updating the state-of-the-art in our research field. In theother event, which took place only

a few weeks ago in Johannesburg,South Africa, we saw many differentorganizations and 104 countries jointogether at the World Summit on Sus-tainable Development of the Earth.The meeting was attended by at least21,000 people including more than9,000 delegates, 8,000 NGOs and4,000 members of the press. The ma-jor outcome was a document, the Planof Implementation, which committedgovernments to address five priorityareas: a) water and sanitation, b) en-ergy, c) health, d) a global effort tocombat desertification, and e) the pro-tection of biodiversity and improve-ment of ecosystem management.

In the case of health-relatedissues, the participating countriesagreed to phase out, by 2020, the useand production of chemicals thatharm human health and the environ-ment. This resolution is in additionto ongoing actions to fight HIV/AIDSand to reduce water borne diseasesand health risks caused by pollution.Commitments were also made to re-duce losses in biodiversity by

2010, to restore fisheries to their maxi-mum sustainable yields by 2015, toestablish a representative network ofprotected marine areas by 2012, andto improve the access of developingcountries to environmentally-soundalternatives to ozone depleting chemi-cals by 2010.

During the PSNA meeting inMérida we heard talks ranging fromethnobotany and drug discoverythrough biological diversity to the mo-lecular biology of secondary metabo-lism. It was clear from both of theseconferences that nature continues tobe the major source of chemical di-versity. Biological organisms producea diversity of novel secondarymetabolites that exhibit a wide-rangeof medicinal activities. This is whybiological prospecting can serve as apotentially strong tool for the devel-opment of local economies and theconservation of biodiversity. The de-velopment of pharmaceutical, agricul-tural, and industrial products from

CONTENTS

1 President’s Letter

Preview of the Annual Meeting

3 Phytochemical

Pioneers

Nikolaus Fischer

8 Minutes of the Annual

Business Meeting

8 Student Travel Award

Winners

10 The Unknown

Phytochemist

Crossroads

12 Best Student Papers

Award Winner Profiles

13 Mérida in Pictures

14 2002 Annual Meeting

Photos

17 Neish Symposium

Speaker Profiles

20 Shooting Stars

Rick Dixon

21 2002 Annual Meeting

Report

24 Financial Summary

25 Book Order Form

2003 PSNA

Annual Meeting

Secondary

Metabolism of

Model Systems

August 9 - 13, 2003

Peoria, Illinois

The Phytochemical Society ofNorth America (PSNA) is anonprofit scientific organizationwhose membership is open toanyone with an interest in phy-tochemistry and the role of plantsubstances in related fields. An-nual membership dues are U.S.$40 for regular members and $20for student members. Annualmeetings featuring symposiumtopics of current interest and con-tributed papers by conferenceparticipants are held throughoutthe United States, Canada, andMexico. PSNA meetings provideparticipants with exposure to thecutting-edge research of promi-nent international scientists, butare still small enough to offer in-formality and intimacy that areconducive to the exchange ofideas. This newsletter is circu-lated to members to keep theminformed of upcoming meetingsand developments within the so-ciety, and to provide a forum forthe exchange of information andideas. If you would like addi-tional information about thePSNA, or if you have materialthat you would like included inthe newsletter, please contact thePSNA Secretary and NewsletterEditor. Annual dues and changesof address should be sent to thePSNA Treasurer. Also check thePSNA website at www.psna-online.org for regular updates.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President

Victor Loyola-Vargas

Centro de Investigación

Cientifica de Yucatán

Mérida, Yucatán, México

01-9-981-39-43 (phone)

01-9-981-39-00 (fax)

[email protected]

President-ElectDaneel Ferreira

NCNPR, School of Pharmacy

The University of Mississippi

University, MS 38677, USA

662-915-1572 (phone)

662-915-7062 (fax)

[email protected]

Past-PresidentRichard A. Dixon

Sam Roberts Noble Foundation

2510 Sam Noble Parkway

Ardmore, OK 73401, USA

580-221-7301 (phone)

580-221-7380 (fax)

[email protected]

Secretary and Newsletter EditorPeter J. Facchini

Dept. of Biological Sciences

University of Calgary

Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

403-220-7651 (phone)

403-289-9311 (fax)

[email protected]

Treasurer

Charles L. Cantrell

Hauser Inc.

4161 Specialty Place

Longmont, CO 80504

720-652-7009 (phone)

303-772-8166 (fax)

[email protected]

Editor-in-ChiefJohn T. Romeo

Department of Biology

University of South Florida

Tampa, FL 33620, USA

813-974-3250 (phone)

813-974-3263 (fax)

[email protected]

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Peter Constabel (2003)

Jonathon Poulton (2003)

Margaret Essenberg (2004)

Felipe Vazquez-Flota (2004)

Vincenzo De Luca (2005)

Joe Chappell (2005)

Johnathan Gershenzon (2005)

PSNA NEWS October 20023

PHYTOCHEMICAL PIONEERS

Nikolaus Fischer - “Ein Wanderer” and “Einwanderer” in Science

Prologue

At the PSNA meeting in Mérida,México, I was asked by PeterFacchini to write an article for the Fall2002 PSNA Newsletter Series Phy-tochemical Pioneers. After the veryinteresting readings of Neil Towers’“Memories of a Budding Scientist”and Ragai Ibrahim’s “Journey in PlantBiochemistry” in the previous twonewsletters, I felt very honored to bein the good company of twophytochemists that I respect and ad-mire. I have decided to write aboutindividuals, that are my “Pioneers”,but not only in Phytochemistry. I wishto add individuals that have had sig-nificant influences on my career andmy life in general from my childhoodto the present.

At the Mérida meeting, Ishowed a slide of Jeffrey Harborne,that I had taken in the fall of 1986during the Phytochemical Society ofEurope meeting in Lausanne, Swit-zerland. At the time of my presenta-tion in Mérida, I did not know thatJeffrey had died just one day before,on July 21, 2002. The photo resem-bles the way I wish to remember

Jeffrey Harborne, a quiet, somewhatshy person. He made immense con-tributions to phytochemistry andchemical ecology as a scientist, aneditor and as a prolific writer. As awriter, he was a critical analyst with aquick pen and a great gift for detect-ing and summarizing new and signifi-cant contributions to our field of sci-ence. Jeffrey was never my mentor,but he has had a positive influence onmy career and my life and has givenme guidance in my budding years asa scientist. It is about individuals likeJeffrey that I wish to write about inthis newsletter.

A brief comment on the abovetitle. In the German language “EinWanderer” translates into “A Wan-derer” on a journey. However, theEnglish translation for “Einwanderer”is “Immigrant”. Both terms apply tomy life’s journey.

My Life’s Journey and ScientificOdyssey

I had no choice! I was born into Hit-ler’s Third Reich three years beforethe Second World War started. Myfamily lived in a small farming comm-

unity named Kunzendorf on the riverBiele in the then German Province ofSelesia, which is now a part of Poland.My father Ernst was a mechanic witha little repair shop for motor cycles andmy mother Luzia took care of the Shellgas station. She very much enjoyedserving the customers that were trav-elling to the popular health spa BadLandeck; for my mother this repre-sented a window to the world. Myolder brother Siegfried and I grew upin a caring, large family of farmers.Even the war years had little negativeimpact on our life, except that our fa-ther had been drafted in 1939, servingin the German Army from day one ofthe war. I wish to mention one littlestory from the war period. In 1943, afamily from Bremen had been evacu-ated due to heavy bombardments oftheir hometown “Oma Rabe”, “MamaFifi” and her children Helga andHeiner lived next door in the house ofmy grandparents. During their shortstay, I enjoyed the company of Helga,the girl from the big city. This girl isnow my wife for over 30 years.

At the end of the Second WorldWar, our carefree small-village lifechanged dramatically. My father didnot return from the war; he was miss-ing in action since 1944. Over 50 yearslater, in 1996, my mother was in-formed by the Red Cross, that fatherhad died in a Russian prison camp nearWolgograd one month before the endof the war. Our mother was a widowat age 33 and never remarried until herdeath at age 90 last year.

In April 1946, my mother, mybrother and I had to leave Selesia justwith our possessions that each of uscould carry. After a long odyssey onrailroad cattle cars, we were trans-ported west and were resettled in asmall village in Westfalia in the Brit-ish Zone of Germany.

continued on page 4From left to right: B. M. Fraga, Kurt Hostettmann, Jeffrey B. Harborne, J. D.Phillipson, Tony Swain, Klaus Fischer at the 1986 PSE Meeting in Lausanne.

continued from page 3

I went to Elementary School and thento Middle School in a neighboringtown, which was rebuilding fromheavy wartime bombardments. Ourbarrack-style classroom was used asa dancing hall on weekends. Bookswere uncommon during the first yearsafter the war. Our teachers were strict,competent and very caring. I was anaverage student and chemistry was aparticularly difficult subject for me;it simply did not turn me on. My sci-ence teacher, Dr. Ehlers, was nothappy with my performance, but therewas no laboratory experience. In ad-dition, at that time my greatest inter-est and main passion was playing myviolin, which I had acquired for verylittle money and had taught myself,playing for two to three hours everyday. In school, my performance inchemistry was slowly drifting towardsa failing grade. My brother Siegfried,who had been an excellent student athome in Selesia, loved chemistry, butwas not able to continue his educa-tion due to the post-war turbulenttimes. He knew how to trigger my in-terest in chemistry. I received fromhim a present that gave new directionsto my future life and career: a chem-istry laboratory kit. My tortured vio-lin had a long rest. Chemical experi-ments became my obsession; at gradu-ation from Middle School in 1954, Ireceived a B grade in chemistry. I hadearned it and was very proud of it!After recognizing my sincere interestin chemistry, my science teacher rec-ommended that I attend a two-yearschool for Chemical Technicians (inGerman: Chemotechniker). One of thebest programs was in Isny, a smallsouth German town just north ofLindau on Lake Constance in the Stateof Wuertemberg-Hohenzollern. Thisvery rigorous program emphasizedlaboratory techniques to prepare stu-dents for careers in industry and gov-ernmental laboratories. One of themost memorable events during thetime in Isny was a 1955 class trip to

Lindau to attend the annual Chemis-try Nobel Laureate Meeting. There Iwas in the same room with the giantsin the field. I remember standing nearStaudinger, a natural products chem-ist in his early career; then he ex-panded his field to mimic the synthe-sis of natural polymers to become oneof the fathers of synthetic polymerchemistry. I was excited but also sad-dened by the fact that I could neverbe part of the academic community,since my middle school backgroundwas at an academic dead end. A highschool degree was necessary to enterthe university. For me a university de-gree had to remain a dream. In myfinal examination in the spring of1956, one of the outside examinersin organic chemistry was ProfessorHeinrich Hellmann from the Univer-sity of Tuebingen, the man to whomI am still very thankful for openingthe door for my higher education.

After a very successful oralexam, he asked me about my futureplans. I told him about my dilemma,that I had no choice but to find a jobin industry. To my greatest surprise,he pointed out that the State ofWuertemberg-Hohenzollern had in-troduced a new law, which allowedqualified students from technicalschools in the state to study in theirfield at the University of Tuebingen.This university is one of the oldest inGermany, founded in 1477. I was thefirst member of our greater familywho had the opportunity to receive auniversity education.

After the Second World War,Tuebingen held a unique position inthe German academic world. The citywas untouched by the war and manyeminent scientists, including anumber of Nobel Laureates, were onthe faculty at this university. The di-rector of the Chemistry Institute wasGeorge Wittig, who was transferringto the University of Heidelberg in1956, but his Nobel Prize winningresearch was done in Tuebingen. TheNobel Laureate Adolf Butenandt ofadrenal cortical hormone fame (Nobel

Prize together with Ruzicka, 1939)was forced by the Nazi regime to de-cline, but he accepted the Prize afterthe war. Butenandt was also the dis-coverer of insect sex pheromones. Ivividly remember the weekly semi-nars, which were impressive “per-formances” by the faculty and the vis-iting speakers. From a student’s pointof view, these were intimidating gath-erings. Attendance was mandatoryfrom the chemistry freshmen to the al-mighty German Professor. Studentsrarely asked questions, but in my firstyear, I asked a visiting speaker aboutthe stability of organic compounds ex-posed to X-ray irradiation, then a pow-erful novel area of structure determi-nation. The new director of the Insti-tute of Organic Chemistry (his namewill not be mentioned) stood up andshouted into the audience: “What astupid question!” I was thankful thatthe speaker cited several examples ofinstability of compounds during X-rayanalysis, but the damage was done.This was my first and last question Iasked in my graduate career and manyyears thereafter. This man might havebeen a good scientist, an educator hewas not! But I learned a great lessonthe hard way with a very positive out-come. I never forgot this incident andit made me a better and more respect-ful and caring educator and mentor ofmy students and postdoctorals in mylater academic career.

After my undergraduate yearsfrom 1957 to 1961, I joined the re-search group of a young Dozent, abrilliant young chemist and pianist,Guenther Opitz, who came out ofButenandt’s research group and laterbecame Wittig’s successor inHeidelberg. My dissertation researchwas a synthetic-mechanistic projectdirected towards the formation andchemistry of sulfene, a group of ket-ene analogs. After major initial diffi-culties, the research project had a posi-tive ending. This new and novelmethod for the synthesis of alkenesfrom aliphatic sulfonic acids is a vari-ation of the Wittig alkene synthesis.


After my graduation in thesummer of 1965, I wanted to get the“American experience”, and do a yearof postdoctoral work in the UnitedStates or Canada. My application hada very fast positive response fromTom Mabry, who at that time was rap-idly building a cutting edge naturalproducts research program in the De-partment of Botany at the Universityof Texas in Austin. As I learned later,it was pure luck. My letter had arrivedon the same day when Jacques Kaganhad informed Tom, that he was leav-ing for a faculty position at the Uni-versity of Illinois at Chicago. Mypostdoctoral experience in Tom’s labwas exciting and refreshing after sev-eral grinding years in graduate school.His graduate students Al Wohlpart andGene Miller and the postdoctoralsKen Markham from New Zealand andMike Thomas from England intro-duced me to natural products chemis-try and NMR spectroscopy. Mike andKen were working with Tom on theclassic book on flavonoids. On a pri-vate note, I will always fondly remem-ber Mike and I watching the soccerworld championship final betweenEngland and Germany. It was a greatgame, but Mike had the last laugh.

Tom, a typical Texan, was con-tagiously enthusiastic, encouragingand very generous. It was a carefreeand enjoyable period and we workedhard and played hard. In Tom’s re-search program, the application ofnatural products toward the new fieldof chemotaxonomy used differentchemical markers. I was introducedinto the sesquiterpene lactone area byGene Miller. Tom brought many emi-nent scientists to the UT campus. Vis-iting professors during this time wereJacques’ brother, Henry Kagan fromFrance, and “Mr. Chemical Funda-mentalist” André Dreiding from theUniversity of Zuerich.

During the spring semester1966, the whole research group wasactively involved in the planning ofthe logistics of the sixth annual meet-ing of the Plant Phenolics Group of

North America. The organizers choseas a symposium topic “The role ofchemistry in modern biology” withemphasis on the use of natural prod-ucts in systematic botany. Many of thebig names in the field attended themeeting: Holger Erdtman fromSweden,Ted Geissman from UCLA,Hans Griesebach from Freiburg, Ger-many and Werner Herz among others.The meeting was a great success andseveral months later led to a reorgani-zation of the Phenolics Group into thePhytochemical Society of NorthAmerica. Our society, the PSNA wasborn and Tom Mabry was the firstpresident.

In early 1967, we attended thefirst Mardi Gras Symposium in Or-ganic Chemistry at Louisiana StateUniversity (LSU) in Baton Rouge. Thechemistry department at LSU was alsolooking for a natural products chem-ist. After the obligatory interviewprocess, I joined the LSU faculty inAugust1967, in spite of my DSP-66visa. My laboratory had no air condi-tioning and running chromatographiccolumns was nearly impossible in thistropical summer climate. But I wasable to get some research done, usu-ally late at night due to the extremeheat during the day. My first paper atLSU was in collaboration with theNMR specialist, the late NormanBhacca. We determined the conforma-tion in solution of a germacranolide-type sesquiterpene lactone by the thennovel method, the Nuclear OverhauserEffects. Tetrahedron Letters turned usdown, but the prestigious chemistryjournal Chemical Communicationsaccepted without changes this fre-quently referenced paper.

The dean of our college wasvery optimistic about getting my visachanged, but in the spring of 1968, Iwas informed that I had to return toGermany for at least two years, beforeI could apply for a green card. Backto Europe! At the time it appeared thatmy career was put on hold, but look-ing back, it was a blessing in disguise.I joined Dreiding’s group in Zuerich

and learned from the master in the fun-damentals in organic chemistry, inparticular, stereochemistry. Our groupmeetings were exercises in the logicof approaching chemical problemswith stereochemistry representing thefoundation of all considerations. Myresearch project contributed to the un-derstanding of the biosynthesis of thebetalamic acid portion of betalainsfrom dopa. Contrary to the previoushypothesis, these alkaloidal pigmentsin cacti and red beet were formed byaromatic cleavage, not between butnext to the catechol moiety of dopa.This unexpected pathway is found inmany biosynthesis textbooks; my onlycontribution to the teaching literature.After returning to LSU in the summerof 1970, the days were filled withteaching and the nights with research.In collaboration with Tod Stuessy atOhio State, whom I knew from hisgraduate years in Austin, an extensivechemical study of the genusMelampodium was initiated. Tod andhis students provided us with veryvaluable plant collections from Texasto Central America. The chemicalanalyses occupied our efforts for awhole decade with multiple newstructures and publications on the iso-lation, structure elucidation and chem-istry of the melampolide-typesesquiterpene lactones. Now mystrong stereochemical foundationgained in Zuerich payed off in the ex-tensive configurational and conforma-tional analyses of sesquiterpenelactones. Melampodium and severalhard-working graduate students se-cured my tenure and promotion toAssociate and Full Professor at LSU-many, many thanks!

My first sabbatical in the fallof 1977 was spent in FerdinandBohlmann’s laboratory in Berlin, Ger-many. I had first met Bohlmann inMonterrey, Mexico, where I was aregular attendee of XorgeDominguez’s annual natural productssymposia. Bohlmann was hard to ap-

continued on page 6



proach and the word arrogant cameto mind. After knowing him better, Ilearned that he was a shy person. Af-ter extensive investigations ofpolyacetylenes, Bohlmann had en-tered the terpenoid field and producedmany publications on the chemicalconstituents of the Compositae. Hewas one of the ten most prolific au-thors worldwide and I often referredto Phytochemistry as the “Bohlmannjournal”. He had the discipline of aPrussian officer. He arrived early inthe morning, taught his organic chem-istry class at 7:30 am and then set upa chromatographic column. In a labsaturated with ether/petroleum ether,he generally took care of his corre-spondence at the lab bench while col-lecting fractions. Generally, he com-pleted one plant extract per day, ranall necessary spectral data and inter-preted them on the spot. At noon hedisappeared to his office and wrotethe manuscript. His photographicmemory was invaluable in structuralwork! I learned then that some peo-ple are more equal than others.

While in Berlin, my wifeHelga and I started collecting the lit-erature for a comprehensive reviewon sesquiterpene lactones in theZechmeister series, Progress in theChemistry of Organic Natural Prod-ucts. This review of nearly 350 pagesappeared in 1979, covering closeto1000 naturally occurring lactones.During the early 1980s we investi-gated the chemistry of several majorgenera of the Asteraceae, mainlyCalea. A collecting trip with myfriend and LSU taxonomy colleagueLowell Urbatsch to Jamaica and themountain areas of Venezuela is still avery pleasant memory.

More and more sesquiterpenelactone papers appeared in the litera-ture. This field had become a maturearea of research and it was time tomove on. At that time, BruceWilliamson, a fire ecologist joined theLSU Botany faculty. He got me

excited about his fire hypothesis re-lated to the long-standing question,why did the Florida Scrub and the ad-jacent Sandhill plant communitiesremain as separate entities over time?Our investigations led to a numberof significant chemical and ecologi-cal findings related to plant-plant in-teractions (allelopathy) in severaldominant species in the FloridaScrub. The most significant and ex-citing outcome included the first caseof a photochemical activation of non-toxic plant constituents into potentphytotoxins in a cascade of chemicalevents. We had great fun and con-vincing results, but the contributionof allelopathy in plant-plant interac-tions seems to be still in the doghouseof chemical ecology. I learned thenthat scientists can be a highly con-servative bunch.

Another collaborative projectat that time involved Hector Floresin Plant Pathology and MartinHjortso in Chemical Engineering atLSU. We studied the biotechnologi-cal potential of “hairy root” culturesand learned that “hairy roots” areexcellent systems for studyingbiosynthetic pathways of root con-stituents, using 13C- labeled precur-sors. The 1990s were highly activeyears of a collaborative bioassay-guided search for anti-tuberculosisagents from higher plants. Again, ourcollaboration with Scott Franzblau,then at the Hanson’s Disease Centerstationed at LSU, provided no newanti-TB drugs, but we learned aboutmany essential structural featuresfrom our structure- activity studiesessential for future developments.Greater details on this story can beobtained from the present treasurerof our Society.

After 32 years on the LSUfaculty, I retired and moved to theMagnolia State, Mississippi. I joinedthe Department of Pharmacognosy inthe School of Pharmacy at the Uni-versity of Mississippi as Professorand Chair and, as a balance to my ad-ministrative duties, find enjoyment

in the study of the genus Magnoliaand related taxa.

Epilog

Looking back on a career of over 35years of research in natural productschemistry, I realize now that we hadextensive and highly successful col-laborations between our chemistrygroup and scientists in various areasof biology. This was well before mostgranting agencies knew how to spellthe word “collaborations”. I acceptthat these areas of science are now“mature”, and have lost the cuttingedge status in modern natural prod-ucts research. But long-lasting friend-ships grew out of our scientificallyrewarding endeavors. These closefriendships with colleagues, formerstudents, postdoctorals and visitingscientists still remain when all the sci-entific accomplishments disappearinto the shadows of new findings anddevelopments. My journey as an ac-tive researcher is now slowly com-ing to an end and I am observing withgreat interest the new developmentsthat advance the field of Phytochem-istry to the next level of understand-ing. The new tools of molecular bi-ology provide insight into the forma-tion, location and ecological functionof natural products. Understanding alldetails of biosynthetic pathways aswell as the pharmacological functionsof natural products will not only pro-vide new knowledge but lead to newsources for medicinal drugs and ag-riculturally useful products.

After a long journey, the“wanderer’s cane” in the field of natu-ral products is now in the hands ofthe next generation of scientists. Allmy best wishes for the journey. Don’tforget that it is not the destiny but thejourney that makes our lives interest-ing and fulfilling.

Nikolaus FischerMississippi State University

Oxford, [email protected]


MINUTES OF THE 2002 ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On - Or Something Like That

The 2002 Annual Business Meetingwas held from 19h00 to 20h15 onTuesday, July 23, 2002 as part of thePSNA Annual Meeting in Mérida,México. The business meeting wascalled to order and chaired by VictorLoyola-Vargas, President-Elect of thePSNA. Loyola-Vargas indicated thatthere was both good news and badnews for the society over the last year.Felipe Vázquez-Flota, local organizerfor the 2002 Annual Meeting inMérida, México provided a summaryof the conference. The very success-ful meeting attracted a total of 92 par-ticipants – 44 from the USA, 32 fromMexico, 7 from Canada, and 9 fromother countries. The registrants in-cluded 26 students who entered 15posters into the best paper competi-tion. Funding for the meeting wasobtained from the PSNA (US $5,000),the Centro de Investigacion Cientificade Yucatan (CICY) ($3,000), PfizerCanada ($2,000), and two local spon-sors, Difision ($500) and Meriequipos($500) for a total of $11,000. Approxi-mately $9,000 was expected from theregistration fees, and another $8,500was awarded to Hector Flores fromthe National Science Foundation(USA) in support of the meeting. TheNSF funds can only be used in theUnited States and will be dispensedto invited speakers from the USA tocover travel costs. It was anticipatedthat the conference organizers shouldhave sufficient funds to cover thecosts of the meeting.

The Society Treasurer, CharlesCantrell, distributed financial reportsfor 2001 and the first 5 months of2002. The Society’s finances arehealthy as reflected by an increase intotal assets by more than $15,000 in2001. The most significant reason forthe increase in assets was the self-suf-ficiency of the 2001 PSNA AnnualMeeting in Oklahoma City. The Neish

Symposium Account has increased toover $35,000 as the result of a dona-tion through Rick Dixon from theNoble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla-homa. However, the Neish Accountgenerated less than $700 in interest in2001, which is considerably less thanthe $2,000 required per year in sup-port of young investigators invited tothe meeting. Suggested alternatives tothe current investment strategy wererequested. Cantrell also discussed thestatus of membership in the Society.Membership in the Society has fallensteadily over the last several years. In2001 there were 371 members, downfrom 408 in 2000. The main reasonfor the drop was the purging of mem-bers at the end of 2000 that had notpaid dues in 2 years or more. Approxi-mately 50 more members were purgedat the end of 2001 for the same rea-son. Thus, overall membership in theSociety can be expected to have de-clined further at the present time. Themost disturbing trend is the loss ofMexican members over the last fewyears. Currently, the number of Mexi-can members stands at nine. It wasagreed that immediate action is re-quired to increase Mexican involve-ment in the Society.

John Romeo, Editor-in-Chiefof the Recent Advances in Phyto-chemistry book series, provided an in-dication of the status of the relation-ship with the new publisher, Elsevier,and a summary of book sales. Theswitch to Elsevier has resulted in abetter quality book with a relativelyrapid production period. The publisheralso aggressively advertises the books.The only drawback is the amount ofwork necessary to prepare the bookfor publication since Elsevier requirescamera-ready manuscripts. Cumula-tive sales of the books are strong, buttwo more recent volumes are currentlylagging behind to some extent. The

Society has agreed to purchase 75copies of each volume for sale to itsmembers. Last year, 64 out of these75 copies of Volume 36 were pur-chased at the meeting in OklahomaCity. However, significant numbers ofthe Society’s stock of Volumes 34 and35 remain to be sold. Members wereencouraged to purchase the books.

Secretary and Newsletter Edi-tor, Peter Facchini, discussed the sta-tus of the newsletter. A well plannedvote of confidence by the membershipin attendance pre-empted Facchini’splan to inform the Society that hewould end his term on the ExecutiveCommittee at the 2003 annual meet-ing. He agreed to serve an additionaltwo years as Newsletter Editor.Facchini stated, however, that the ex-isting structure of the Executive Com-mittee places too much of a burdenon two individuals – the Treasurer andthe Secretary and Newsletter Editor.He suggested that the Executive Com-mittee should be expanded to includetwo separate appointments – one forthe Secretary and another for theNewsletter Editor. Facchini wouldremain as the Newsletter Editor fortwo more years, but suggested thatanother member be elected to serveas the Society Secretary. This indi-vidual would be responsible for allSociety communications, such as theWeb site, e-mail announcements, andthe distribution and counting of bal-lots, among other things. Currently,these tasks are split among other Ex-ecutive Committee members andwould be best consolidated. There wasgeneral agreement for the suggestion,which will proceed to a ballot for con-sideration by the Society membership.

Several other changes to thestructure of the Society were dis-cussed. First, it was suggested that the



PSNA Supports Graduate Student Participation at the 2002 Annual Meeting

STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS

Erin K. Wallace, Salk Institute, La

Jolla, California, USA

Ana Cuevas Pardo, Universidad de

Puerto Rico, Departemento de

Biología, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Beth Jackson, Department of

Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice

University, Houston, Texas, USA

Diane Martín , Biotechnology

Laboratory, University of British

Columbia, Vancouver, British

Columbia, Canada

Renée LeClair, Department of

Biochemistry, Rice University,

Houston, Texas, USA

Fabiola Domínguez, Labotarorio de

Fitofarmacos, Unidad de

Investigación en Enfermedades

Neurológicas Centro Medico

Nacional Siglo XXI IMSS, Mexico

Andrea Medina, Department of

Agronomy and Horticulture, New

México State University, Las Cruces,

New México, USA

Maria Eufemia Morales-Ribio ,

Faculdad de Ciencias Biológicas,

Cuidad Universitaria, San Nicolas de

los Garzas, Nuevo Leon, México

Maryam Farzad , Biology

Department, Georgetown University,

Washington, DC, USA

Cristian Jiménez Martínez,

Departamento de Graduados e

Investigación en Alimentos, ENCB-

IPN, Casco de Santo Tomas, México

City, Mexico

Mariana Domínguez, Instituto de

Química, Universidad Nacional

Autonoma de México, Coyoacan,

México City, México

María Santos Cervantes, Instituto de

Química y Ciencias Biologicas,

Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa,

Culiacán Sinaloa, México

Matthew Hemm, Department of

Biochemistry, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA


Ramón Robles Zepeda, Unidad de

Biotecnología e Ingenieria Genetica,

Centro de Investigación y de Estudios

Avanzados, Irapuato, Guanajuato,

México

Andrew Burt , Ottawa-Carleton

Institute of Biology, University of

Ottawa, Department of Biology,

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Travis Walker , Department of

Horticulture and Landscape

Architecture, Colorado State

University, Fort Collins, Colorado,

USA

Octavio Morales Calvo Gomez,

Unidad de Biotecnología e Ingenieria

Genetica, Centro de Investigación y

de Estudios Avanzados, Irapuato,

Guanajuato, México

Rocío Ivón Ventura-Perez,

Departamento de Ecologia Vegetal,

Instituto de Ecologia A.C., Antiqua

Carretera a Coatepec, Xalapa,

Veracruz, México

Maria del Pilar Nicasio, Centro de

Investigación Biomédica del Sur,

Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social,

Xochitepec, Morelos, México

Best Student Presentations

Matthew Hemm, Department of

Biochemistry, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

Ileana Echevarria Machado, Centro

de Investigacion Cientifica de

Yucatan, Mérida, Yucatán, México


THE UNKNOWN PHYTOCHEMIST

Why Didn’t the Chemical Ecologist Cross the Road?*

In the last issue of PSNA News, oneof our more enlightened colleaguescontributed an anonymous article be-moaning the insidious nature of theterminology adopted by the emergingfield of genomics. One can only guessat the identity of this misguided soul,but a bit of forensic investigationmight shed some light on what makesthis person tick. My approach herewill be a type of criminal profiling -and make no mistake, the poorly dis-guised bluntness of the blows struckby this felonious, pseudoscientificallyinclined boywonder were nothingshort of criminal. The unfortunate vic-tims of the dastardly culprit in this in-vestigation are the brave-hearted pio-neers willing to carve out new trailsinto previously uncharted territory.Such a flattering description couldonly be used to portray one type ofmodern day phytochemist - yes, I saidphytochemist - the molecular biolo-gist. Once again, this maligned groupof dedicated scientists comes under at-tack from one of the “others”. Yearsof involvement in phytochemical so-cieties without any serious repercus-sions have led molecular phytochem-ists to believe that they were becom-ing accepted into the sacred world of“gag-me-with-a-benzene-ring-and-show-me-structures-until-I-puke”natural products research. Anyway,I’m getting off track here. It is impor-tant to stay focused on the task at hand.Who was that masked stranger whoso viciously preyed on the weakenedpsyche of the Genome Junkie?

In the absence of DNA evi-dence, an ill-fitting glove, or a FordBronco, we’re left to consider the per-sonality of our perpetrator. First, theoriginal incarnation of the UnknownPhytochemist was clearly male. [Edi-tor’s note - there’s no way I can pub-lish the explanation of how the

author of this article determined thegender of the previous Unknown Phy-tochemist. Let’s play nice now, boysand girls.] Secondly, this guy didn’thave the [courage] to identify himself.He waited for a suitable opportunityto hide behind a fortress of anonym-ity. Spineless is a word that comes tomind. Third, our culprit seems to haveconsiderable time on his hands judg-ing by the daft nature of the commentshe took pains to write down. He wouldalso appear to think that he is humor-ous in a Johnny Carson kind of way(i.e. wait for the laugh before you goon). I’m guessing he probably looksa bit goofy, has a fetish forBirkenstock sandals, and prefers awine cooler over a Bud.

Alas, only one type of beast fitsthe aforementioned description - thedreaded chemical ecologist. Now, thisis not intended to be an unsubstanti-ated attack on chemical ecologists.=Rather this is meant to be an unsub-stantiated attack on ecologists in gen-

eral. These researchers are undoubt-edly valuable members of our Soci-ety and make important contributionsto our overall understanding of phy-tochemical processes. Moreover,some might argue that it would be in-appropriate to single out an entiregroup of scientists based on such lim-ited evidence or in response to theopinions of a single individual. But,who cares, I’m going to do it anywaybecause, well, someone needs to bevictimized in this ridiculous featurecondoned by the Newsletter Editor.[Editor’s Note - Hey, don’t blame me.I agreed to it the first time as a forumfor the membership to express theirviews. I had no idea you would allstart taking shots at one another. Atleast, not so soon. Anyway, I need ar-ticles so I’ll print anything.]

So, how can I pick on ecolo-gists? One hardly knows where to be-gin. To maintain a shred of credibilityin this article, I’d like to focus onsomething simple - the way ecologistshandle data. Actually, this brings upan even larger issue - how everyonehandles data! The way ecologists treatdata is at one extreme of the analyti-cal spectrum due to their overbearingpreoccupation with - you might wantto be seated before reading this - sta-tistics. Molecular biologists learnedlong ago that statistics are a completewaste of time. If your northern blotlooks good the first time you do it,why screw it up by doing it again? Thesecond attempt will probably onlylook worse than the first one, anyway.And, in any case, you can’t do a freak-ing chi-square or ANOVA analysis ona northern blot. You might think thatmolecular biologists are at the otherend of the statistical spectrum withrespect to ecologists. But wait! There



Do you have a “strong” opinion abouta phytochemical issue that you wisheveryone could read, but don’t wantanyone to know its you? The UnknownPhytochemist column might be justwhat you’ve been waiting for. All sub-missions will be carefully edited forgood taste according to the Editor’stolerances, which just so happen toextend pretty far - the Editor.

is another. How many times have youseen a paper reporting the content ofsome natural product in a plant? Thegraph shows a convincing increaseover time, for example, but each datapoint is, well, a point - nary an errorbar to be found. This suggests that theamount of said product is exactly saidamount in said plant - end of story. Ofcourse, when you repeat the experi-ment your results are completely dif-ferent than those reported previously.But, their work is published and yoursis not. Our phytochemical forefathershave left quite a legacy in this regard.A little (emphasis on little) statisticswould help a lot. But, as the sayinggoes, you can always have too muchof a good thing.

Ecologists have the uncannyability to take a whole lot of incom-prehensible data, grind it through anarsenal of statistical programs, andvoila, they can come up with a con-clusion - e.g. yes, bears do, indeed,sleep in the woods! Holy crap! Howdo they do that? If my northern blotdoesn’t work, I’m screwed. It doesn’twork! I mean, there’s nothing on the[profanity] film - or worse. One can’thelp but get the impression that nodata is bad data to an ecologist. All itneeds is a little statistical analysis, alittle TLC, and out pops a trend. Man,I wish I could do that the next timemy 2-D gel shows nothing more thana great, big [more profanity - worsethan before] blob of total [excrement].However, it seems that the transfor-mation of incomprehensible data intopublishable figures is not enough.New developments in the art of dataanalysis in the ecological communitycontinue to emerge. According to myecologist colleagues, the way graphi-cal data is presented is about to beturned on its ear. Apparently, we’vebeen doing it all wrong - bar graphs,line graphs, the whole enchilada. Forexample, the new ecology cannot ac-cept the use of bars in a bar graph.

The inflexible environment of a typi-cal journal page forces a bar to bedrawn as a two-dimensional object -a faux pas according to ecologicaldoctrine. That nasty x-component ofa data point that has only a y-valueconfounds the utility of a bar for any-thing other than happy hour. For ex-ample, the hypothetical graph de-picted in Figure 1A is now completelyunacceptable. Instead, the data mustbe shown only as a point represent-ing a y-value (with appropriate sta-tistical overkill, of course), but dis-pensing with that nasty x dimensionas shown in Figure 1B. But, wait, Isay. Even the lowly point has both xand y dimensions. So, I muse, thereis really only one way of properly de-picting ecological data, as shown inFigure 1C. Clearly, the results shownin Figure 1A are exactly the same asthose shown in Figure 1C. Such a for-mat also dispenses with the need toshow any statistical analysis, whichis conveniently embedded in the data.

Okay, I have to get back tosequencing a genome, mining atranscriptome, analyzing a proteome,and trying to bugger up a meta-bolome. So I’ll end my rant on thatnote. To conclude, I should say thatdespite the content of this article andthe fact that, like my predecessor, Iam a coward and want to remainanonymous, I have nothing but theutmost respect for chemical ecolo-gists. Without them we would neverknow what our favorite natural prod-ucts are really doing in the plant. So,whom are we going to pick on next?

*He decided to create a computermodel and predict what was on theother side instead.


Num

ber o

f sle

epin

g be

ars 10

5

0

Num

ber o

f sle

epin

g be

ars 10

5

0

Num

ber o

f sle

epin

g be

ars

Woo

ds

Jung

leCity

Holida

y Inn

10

5

0

A

B

C

Figure 1. Number of sleeping bearsin different places.


2002 ANNUAL MEETING STUDENT AWARD WINNERS

Best Student Presentations

This year’s winners of the Best Stu-

dent Paper Award at the PSNA An-

nual Meeting were Matthew Hemm

from Purdue University and Ileana

Echevarria Machado from the Centro

de Investigacion Cientifica de

Yucatan. Below are brief profiles on

these two outstanding students.

Matthew Hemm

I am currently a doctoral student in

Dr. Clint Chapple’s lab at Purdue

University. I came to Purdue from

the College of William and Mary, a

small liberal arts college in Virginia.

Having been interested in plants since

my early teens when I read books like

Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell

Gibbons, I took all the plant science

classes offered at William and Mary.

I was especially fascinated by the bio-

chemical reactions catalyzed by

plants. At the end of my undergradu-

ate career I was interested in continu-

ing my education at a university that

offered a wide spectrum of plant bio-

chemistry classes and research oppor-

tunities. After visiting Purdue and

talking to Clint, Dr. Klaus Herrmann,

and other professors, I was impressed

by the research going on at Purdue

and by the attitude and interests of

the professors with whom I spoke. In

1998, I started as a graduate student

in the Purdue Plant Biology Program

and, soon after, entered Clint’s lab.

I will always remember Clint

first telling me that genetics is a use-

ful tool for investigating plant bio-

chemistry. It’s a little embarrassing

for me to remember how skeptical I

was of his statement at the time. The

past four years of researching

phenylpropanoid metabolism through

the analysis of mutants blocked in

sinapate ester biosynthesis has taught

me the value of genetics in investi-

gating biochemical questions.

The focus of my Ph.D. re-

search has been to characterize the

block in phenylpropanoid metabolism

in the ref2 (reduced epidermal fluo-

rescence) mutant. This mutant was

isolated along with a number of other

independent ref mutants in a screen

for plants that show reduced fluores-

cence under UV light. In all of these

mutants, the reduced fluorescence

was found to be the result of reduced

levels of sinapoylmalate, a

hydroxycinnamic acid ester accumu-

lated in Arabidopsis leaves. To un-

derstand how the ref2 mutation leads

to this and other phenylpropanoid

phenotypes, I isolated the gene by

positional mapping and identified it

as the cytochrome P450

monooxygenase CYP83A1. The

identification of REF2 as CYP83A1

was unexpected, considering that

CYP83B1, the closest homologue to

CYP83A1, had been shown to be in-

volved in the biosynthesis of

glucosinolates, another family of sec-

ondary metabolites accumulated in

Arabidopsis. In light of these results,

I revisited the phenotypic analysis of

ref2 plants. Decreased levels of

glucosinolates in ref2 tissues sug-

gested that CYP83A1 also plays a

role in glucosinolate biosynthesis,

specifically in the production of

glucosinolates derived from methio-

nine. Investigating this unexpected

link between glucosinolate and

phenylpropanoid phenotypes in the

ref2 mutant has been stimulating, and

has provided many hours of spirited

debate in the lab.

When I’m not discussing

data with lab members, my wife and

I enjoy escaping from our respective

studies by camping in the parks

around Indiana. Although we are

both only novices, we love the chance

to get away from civilization for a

while and relax. She nicely tolerates

my diversions into investigating in-

teresting plant life, and in exchange I

carry her equipment.

I would like to take the op-

portunity to thank her, Clint, and all

past and present members of his lab

for their advice and assistance dur-

ing my graduate school career.

Ileana Echevarría-Machado

Ileana Echevarría-Machado was bornon October 2, 1966 in La Havana,Cuba. Married with two children



Hey! Get out of my shot.

Statue of some guy near Wal-Mart. Even in México, it’syour preferred source for cheap plastic crap.

The conference wasn’t the only place with a lot of bull.

MERIDA IN PICTURES

Or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

An old church.

A new thing...but, we’re supposed to think its old.

I think I’m lost.


The 2002 PSNA Annual Meeting: Science with Salsa

MEMORIES OF MÉRIDA

Eloy Rodriguez. The Amazon. Viagra. Purple hands.Trust me...you had to be there.

Great entertainment at the Opening Ceremony.

Felipe Vazquez halfway through his 4-hour banquet speech.

The Three Amigos. What’s so funny boys?


Most discussions were friendly... ...but, the passion of a phytochemist is hard to contain.

Dittrich Ober and Hector Flores. Tour of the Botanical Garden at CICY.

Mamdouh Abou-Zaid and Jonathan Gershenzon. Erich Glawischnig gabbing about glucosinolates.


Everything was going great until someone yelled “foodfight”!

Charles Cantrell ensured his place as the most popular Execu-tive Committee member by handing out checks.

MORE GREAT MOMENTS IN MÉXICO

Elisabeta Hernández and Freddie Campos from CICY.


Can’t Wait Until Next Year!

NEISH YOUNG INVESTIGATOR MINISYMPOSIUM

Speaker profiles

Jorge Vivanco

Jorge Vivanco is an Assistant Profes-sor in the Department of Horticultureat Colorado State University, wherehis research group studies the biology,biochemistry and ecology of root exu-dates under a multidisciplinary um-brella. The different projects at Dr.Vivanco’s laboratory encompass theroot secretion of bioactive secondarymetabolites and proteins, with a spe-cial emphasis on ribosome-inactivat-ing proteins (RIPs). Additionally, Dr.Vivanco’s group is undertaking ametabolomics approach to study thechemical diversity of secondarymetabolites present in the root exu-dates of model plant species such asArabidopsis. Dr. Vivanco is the recipi-ent of a National Science FoundationEarly Career Development (NSF-CA-REER) award for his work on RIPs.At Colorado State University, Dr.Vivanco teaches a course on bioactivecompounds from plants, which in-cludes an NSF-funded internship tointernational centers of agricultural re-search such as the International Po-tato Center in Lima, Peru.

Dr. Vivanco obtained his B.Sc.degree in Agronomy at theUniversidad Nacional Agraria LaMolina in Lima, Peru. During thistime he did research at the Interna-tional Potato Center on the effects ofRIPs against potato viruses. He thenmoved to the Pennsylvania State Uni-versity where he obtained a Ph.D.degree in Plant Pathology under thesupervision of Dr. Hector Flores. Hisdissertation focused on the isolationand characterization of an RIP froman endangered Andean root crop. Thisproject was originally funded by theMcKnight Foundation CollaborativeCrop Research Program to study thebiology of underutilized Andean rootcrops. After finishing his Ph.D.,

he joined the group of Dr. NilgunTumer as a post-doc in the Biotech-nology Institute at Rutgers Universityto study, in detail, the mechanism ofaction of RIPs on viral RNAs andmRNAs.Over the last eight years Dr.Vivanco has researched and publishedseveral studies focus on bioactive pro-teins and secondary metabolites pro-duced by plants at the biochemical,physiological, molecular, ecologicaland applied levels.

Dr.Vivanco’s program is cur-rently combining metabolomics,genomics and proteomics to evaluatethe potential of a new method of drugdiscovery by using the induciblebiosynthetic and secretory capabilitiesof the roots to discover newantimicrobials, anticancer and herbi-cidal compounds, and value-addedvolatiles.

Sergio Peraza-Sanchez

Dr. Sergio R. Peraza-Sanchez is aResearch Associate at Centro deInvestigación Científica de Yucatán(CICY) in Mérida, México, the samecity where he was born in 1961. In1986, he obtained a first class honorsB.Sc. degree in Industrial Chemistryfrom the University of Yucatan,having carried out his thesis at CICY.He joined CICY as a ResearchAssistant in 1987 in the project.“Synthesis of prednisone fromhecogenine isolated from henequenplant (Agave fourcroydes)”. In 1989,he obtained a M.Sc. degree inPhytochemistry from the MonterreyInstitute of Technology and HigherStudies (ITESM) in Mexico, under thesupervision of one of the mostrecognized Mexican phytochemistleaders, Prof. Xorge A. Dominguez.After the completion of his M.Sc.degree, in 1990 he joined the Organic

Chemistry Department of CICY as aResearch Associate working on aproject entitled “Detection, isolation,and identification of bioactivemetabolites produced by medicinalplants of the Yucatan peninsula”.During this time he acquired moreexperience on the screening andpreparation of extracts, usingchromatographic and spectroscopictechniques, and establishing differentbioassays to direct the process offractionation, including toxicityagainst Artemia salina andantimicrobial activity. While in CICY,he also acted as the director of threeundergraduate theses and gavelectures on Organic Chemistry at theUniversity of Yucatán. Sponsoredunder the terms of a British CouncilScholarship, in 1994 he travelled toScotland where he stayed four monthsas a visiting scholar to undertake acourse in theory and interpretation ofNMR and MS spectroscopy given byProf. Peter G. Waterman at thePhytochemistry Research Labora-tories, Department of PharmaceuticalSciences, University of Strathclyde.Wishing to acquire more experienceand grow as an independentresearcher, in 1996 he entered a Ph.D.program in pharmacognosy given atthe College of Pharmacy, Universityof Illinois at Chicago. There, for histhesis dissertation, he worked withextracts of two plants exhibitingcytotoxic activity to isolate newchemical leads with anticanceractivity under the guidance of Prof.A. Douglas Kinghorn, editor in chiefof one of the most prestigiousjournals, the Journal of NaturalProducts. In 2001, he returned toMexico to join his former Chemistrygroup at CICY where he is currentlyworking as a Research Asso-




ciate. His main research interestincludes the isolation andidentification of chemical compoundswith antiprotozoal activity producedby native plants collected in theYucatan Peninsula, with the hope thatthey can be developed as new drugsto fight the diseases caused byLeishmania mexicana, Trypanosomacruzi, and Giardia lamblia that affecta large number of local people. Forhis project, he is getting support inMexico from the National Council ofScience and Technology (Conacyt),and he has been awarded with anInternational Foundation for Science(IFS) grant. At the present time, he isthe director of three undergraduatetheses and one graduate thesis (Ph.D.),and he also supervises students fromthe University of Yucatan carrying onexperimental work as part of theirundergraduate program in Chemistry.He has been invited to give a series oflectures on natural products isolationat the University of Yucatán andTechnical Institute of Mérida. He hasalso participated in several nationaland international meetings on thechemistry of natural products. Hecurrently is a member of the AmericanSociety of Pharmacognosy,Phytochemical Society of NorthAmerica, and Chemical Society ofMexico. He is the author of 11research papers.

Melina López Meyer

Melina López Meyer began her workon natural products as an undergradu-ate at CICY in Yucatán, México work-ing on the production of thiophenesin in vitro cultures of transformedroots of Tagetes sp. She obtained herM.Sc. Degree at CICY under the su-pervision of Dr. Carlos Oropeza andDr. Jorge Santamaría. By working onthis project, Melina gained experiencein plant tissue culture and several phy-tochemical techniques. During this

time, Melina became fascinated withthe world of plant natural products.In the last year of Melina’s M.Sc. pro-gram several well-known researchersin plant secondary products were in-vited to a plant secondary metaboliteworkshop at CICY. It was then thatMelina was introduced to Dr. CraigNessler, who attended the workshopas one of the major speakers. Twoyears later, Melina started her Ph.D.studies at the Biology department ofTexas A&M University at Dr.Nessler´s lab. At this time, Melina wasinterested in using a molecular biol-ogy approach to learn about plant sec-ondary compound pathways. Sheworked on the isolation and charac-terization of tryptophan decarboxy-lase genes from the Chinese treeCamptotheca acuminata. These genesare involved on the early steps of thebiosynthesis of the indole alkaloidcamptothecin, which has been used asan anticancer drug. After her Ph.D.,Melina started a 3 year postdoctoralstay in Dr. Nancy Paiva’s lab at theNoble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla-homa working on the cellular and sub-cellular localization of vestitone re-ductase, which is an enzyme involvedin one of the latest steps of the bio-synthesis of the phytoalexinmedicarpin in alfalfa. After her train-ing on plant tissue culture, phyto-chemistry and molecular biology dur-ing her M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies,Melina saw her postdoctoral projectas a good opportunity to work on theplant secondary metabolites field us-ing cell biology as an approach. Dur-ing the second part of her stay at theNoble Foundation, Dr. Paiva gaveMelina the opportunity to get involvedin some other projects. One of theseprojects caught Melina’s interest.

Melina had been working with vestitone reductase in alfalfa. Thisenzyme specifically reduces (– )vestitone in such a way that the plantaccumulates (-) medicarpin. On theother hand, peanut produces (+)medicarpin exclusively. Dr. Paiva hadmade some previous studies demon-

strating that alfalfa pathogens weremore susceptible to (+) medicarpin,which is the isomer not producedendogenously in alfalfa. Using a bio-chemical approach Dr. Paiva pre-dicted the existence of a (+) vestitonereductase and an epimerase in peanut.With the long term goal of engineer-ing alfalfa plants producing both iso-mers in order to increase their patho-gen resistance, Melina worked on theisolation of vestitone reductase frompeanut, since previous studies inNancy’s lab indicated that this enzymewas the key step in conferring ster-eospecificity. By screening a fungalpathogen induced cDNa library frompeanut, Melina isolated two differentputative peanut vestitone reductasegenes. These genes were then ex-pressed in E. coli to test their enzymeactivity. Surprisingly, both vestitonereductase clones reduced (-) vestitonebut not the (+) isomer. Several expla-nations may account for these obser-vations and more work was requiredat this point of the project. The find-ing of a third putative vestitone re-ductase from an EST project putMelina in contact with the technologyof high throughput sequencing andmacroarrays.

Melina went back to Mexico,and although she could not get to theend of the peanut vestitone reductaseproject, the good chances of futurecollaboration with Dr. Paiva alongwith her interest in beginning her ownresearch line on plant secondary prod-ucts keeps her attention and enthusi-asm focused in this fascinating field.

Argelia Lorence

Argelia Lorence started her trainingin 1991 at the Metropolitan Autono-mous University (UAM, Mexico) andcompleted her Bachelor’s degree ma-joring in Biochemical Engineering.She completed an undergrad projectand thesis regarding the financial andtechnical feasibility of producing in-sect resistant tomato seeds in Mexico


under the guidance of Prof. RodolfoQuintero. During this time Dr.Quintero was a full time professor atthe Biotechnology Institute (IBT) ofthe National Autonomous Universityof Mexico (UNAM, Cuernavaca,Mexico), and also the Program Direc-tor of the Biotechnology Program forLatin American Countries of theUnited Nations. This undergradproject was her first contact with plantmolecular biology, a path she wouldcontinue later on during her profes-sional career. Argelia collaborated fora year with Prof. Quintero as an inde-pendent consultant in the United Na-tion’s program cited above. After thatperiod, she joined Prof. Quintero’slaboratory at IBT-UNAM where shegot her Master’s (1995) and PhD(1997) degrees, under the guidance ofProfessors Quintero and AlejandraBravo. Her research involved the de-velopment of a methodology to studythe pore formation activity of the Cryproteins produced by Bacillusthuringiensis (Bt) on vesicles ex-tracted from the midgut of several pestinsect species of importance for Mexi-can agriculture. She successfully de-veloped a methodology that monitorschanges in fluorescence. Thesechanges were caused by the distribu-tion inside and outside the vesicles ofa fluorescent dye that moves accord-ing to changes in the membrane per-meability. Her Ph.D. work also in-volved the characterization of thepores formed by Cry1Ac wild typetoxin and some pore-forming defec-tive Cry1Ac mutants in the presenceof its receptor from the cabbage looper(Trichoplusia ni) using planar lipidbilayers.

In 1998 Dr. Lorence joinedthe medicinal plant research group ofthe Research Center of Biotechnology(CEIB) of the Autonomous Universityof the State of Morelos (UAEM,Cuernavaca, Mexico) as an AssociateProfessor. There she started a researchgroup focused on plant metabolic en-gineering using Camptotheca acumi-nata, the joy tree, as a model system.

For two years her effortswere focused on submitting grants,and teaching undergraduate andgraduate courses. In 1999, she wasawarded a grant for young scientistsfrom the Mexican Council of Scienceand Technology (CONACYT) tometabolically engineer C. acuminatacell suspensions. This project was acollaboration with Prof. Craig Nessler,who was, at that time, a full time pro-fessor and Associate Head of the De-partment of Biology of Texas A&MUniversity (College Station, TX). Dr.Lorence joined the Nessler lab inJanuary of 2000 with the objective ofover-expressing some of the genesthat encode for the rate-limiting en-zymes of the camptothecin (CPT)biosynthetic pathway into C. acumi-nata. After spending seven monthsworking in Texas, the Nessler labmoved to the Department of Plant Pa-thology, Physiology and Weed Sci-ence (PPWS) of Virginia PolytechnicInstitute and State University (Vir-ginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA), whereDr. Lorence completed part of her re-search and moved back to Mexico inJune of 2001. While working inBlacksburg she developed C. acumi-nata hairy root cultures that produceCPT and the water-soluble derivative10-hydroxy CPT.

Back in Mexico, she contin-ued with her Camptotheca researchand teaching responsibilities in addi-tion to starting new collaborations.One of these projects focused on thecharacterization of the pore formationactivity of tricolorins, a family ofoligosaccharides with herbicidal prop-erties produced by plant species be-longing to the morning-glory family(Ipomoea sp). This collaborative ef-fort with Prof. Rogelio Pereda-Miranda (Department ofPharmacy,Faculty of Chemistry-UNAM) is part of the PhD work ofRicardo Villatoro-Vera. Using the sys-tem Dr. Lorence developed as a gradu-ate student, they were able to gener-ate evidence that strongly suggeststricolorins affect the membrane of

other plants, bacteria and other com-petitors making non-specific pores.Dr. Lorence presented part of the evi-dence at the Neish Minisymposium forYoung Investigators at the PSNAmeeting of 2002.

In April of this year Dr.Lorence decided to accept the invita-tion of Prof. Nessler to rejoin his labat Virginia Tech where she continueswith her research work as a seniorpost-doc. Her current research is fo-cused on vitamin C production inplants and alkaloid biosynthesis inCamptotheca and opium poppy.

Wolfgang Schühly

Wolfgang Schühly studied chemistryand biology at the University ofFreiburg / Germany. He graduated in1994 with a Diploma in Chemistry. In1995 he joined Prof. Otto Sticher’sgroup at the Swiss Federal Institute ofTechnology (ETH) Zurich, Switzer-land working for his Ph.D. in naturalproducts chemistry. His dissertationfocused on the Brazilian medicinalplant Zizyphus joazeiro and performedisolation and structural elucidations oftriterpenes and saponins and estab-lished biological assays (antibacterialand antifungal). He was also respon-sible for the education of some phar-macy students in practical and theo-retical aspects of phytochemistry. In2000, he came to the United States andjoined Prof. Nikolaus Fischer’s re-search group as a postdoctoral fellowat the University of Mississippi. Hisphytochemical work includes studieson North American members of theMagnoliaceae and Asteraceae and onsome alkaloid-containing plants.

In his lecture, W. Schühly pre-sented results from his research onMagnolia species from the Southeast-ern United States. The genus Magno-lia , which comprises several wellknown and medicinally important spe-cies in Eastern Asia is represented by



Rick Dixon Listed Among Top 15 Plant Researchers Worldwide

PSNA MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

The past president of the PSNA hasbeen recognized as one of the top 15plant and animal researchers mostcited worldwide over the past decade.Dr. Richard A. Dixon, director of theNoble Foundation’s Plant BiologyDivision, and other top-cited research-ers were honored during an awardsgala reception in New Orleans inApril.

“I am surprised but honored bythis award,” said Dixon. “It is goodto know that the work you do is beingread and considered important by oth-ers. The excellent support from theNoble Foundation has been a majorfactor in enabling me to put togetherthe body of work on which this awardwas based. I also have a wonderfulgroup of highly talented postdoctoralfellows, technicians and collabora-tors.”

Dixon’s research programcenters on understanding how plantsproduce natural products, and howthis understanding can be applied togenerate improved plants. The follow-ing are of particular interest: 1)isoflavonoids, which help protect leg-umes from fungal infection and may

also be beneficial to human healththrough their phytoestrogen activity;2) triterpenes, complex molecules thatact as antifeedants and can negativelyaffect forage quality, but which also

have potential as lead compounds foranticancer agents; 3) lignin, a cell-wall polymer that negatively affectsdigestibility of forage legumes andgrasses; and 4) condensed tannins thathelp improve ruminant nutrition andreduce pasture bloat, as well as pro-viding a range of potential health ben-efits to humans.

Over the past five years,Dixon’s group has discovered manyof the genes involved in making thesecomplex molecules, and has providedproof of principle for improvement offorage crops, particularly alfalfa,through genetic modification of thecorresponding pathways.

“I see important applicationsof this work for increasing crop yieldsthrough improved disease resistanceand providing a true scientific basisfor human preventative medicinebased on dietary intake,” said Dixon.The Indicators ranking is based ontotal citations to papers indexed from1991 through October 2001 by ISI,inventors of the Web site evaluationtool, ISI Essential ScienceIndicatorsSM, which was used to iden-tify the top-ranking scientists.


THE “I NEED SOMETHING TO FILL THIS SPACE” SECTION

The Annual Meeting of our Societywas held in Mérida México from July20 to 24. The Conference was hostedby Centro de Investigación Científicade Yucatan (CICY) and a total of 92phytochemists from seven differentcountries attended it. This year´stheme was Phytochemistry asIntegrative Biology: FromEthnobotany to Molecular Ecology.Works were held at the Hotel ElConquistador de Montejo andincluded five symposia, five plenarytalks as well as a poster session.During the Opening Ceremony,which took place on a rainy Saturdayevening and was presided by Dr.Alfonso Larqué, CICY’s GeneralDirector, Eloy Rodríguez (Cornell)presented to us a very interestingpoint of view about the underlyingreasons for our interest in naturalproducts. Eloy mentioned during histalk (of course as a joke), such interestis because natural products make usfeel better, either providing us relieffrom pain or disease, or due to theirstimulant properties. On the seriouspart of his talk, Eloy showed usseveral examples of the chemicalcomposition of some of the remediesused by the inhabitants of the rainforest of South- and Central America.

On Sunday morning, RickDixon chaired the symposium onphenolics which covered aspects re-

2002 ANNUAL MEETING SUMMARY

garding the enzymology of flavonoidbiosynthesis, its transcriptionalregulation, the 3-dimensionalarchitecture of the methyltransferasesinvolved and the ecological relevanceof polyphenols. Barbara Timmerman(University of Arizona) presented theinside of the Program on InternationalCooperative Biodiversity Group. This9 year program groups Universitiesfrom Argentina, Chile, Mexico andthe US. During the afternoon session,coordinated by Lourdes Miranda(CICY), a total of 50 posters werepresented and discussed. Amongthem, 15 were competing for twoawards. Monday morning wasdevoted to terpenoids. Thissymposium was chaired by EdmundoLozoya (CINVESTAV Irapuato,Mexico) and included talks on theenzymatic basis for their diversity, aswell as a new type of methyl-transferase involved in theirbiosynthesis. Other topics coveredaspects related to the synthesis oftaxol and other biologically activeterpenes as well as their importanceas medicinal drugs. Monday morningplenary talk was given by XavierLozoya, (IMSS, Mexico) whoexposed his points of view on thenecessity to integrate the traditionalknowledge of medicinal plants in thedeveloping of new drugs derived fromplants. Glucosinolates were reviewed

on Monday afternoon havingJonathan Gershenzon (Max Plank,Jena) as the chairman. Topics relatedto the medical properties,ecophysiological roles, biosyntheticpathway evolution, and distribution ofglucosinolates in plant tissues werediscussed. The session closed with atalk by John Rossiter (ImperialCollege) on the new myrosinase fromcabbage aphids. The now traditionalArthur Neish Young InvestigatorSymposium took place on Tuesdaymorning. Five young scientists fromMexico and the US, four of themLatin-Americans, participated in thissession which was chaired by LuisManuel Peña (CICY). The lastplenary talk was by JonathanGershenzon who presented afascinating study on the formationand function of the terpenesvolatilized from Arabidopsis leaves.Alkaloids were the topic of the lastsymposium on Wednesday morning.This session, chaired by Vince DeLuca (Brock University), had a niceattendance, despite the animatedbanquet we had the night before!Speakers covered the recent advancesin the synthesis and regulation ofindole and benzyisoquinolinealkaloids, as well as the role of thepyrrolizidine alkaloids in plant-insectinteractions. Finally, an interestingbiotechnological approach towardsthe production of decaf coffee beanswas also presented as part of thissession.

Overall, the participantsconsidered this a very productivemeeting. For many of them, this wastheir first experience at a PSNAmeeting. Everyone should considermaking a serious commitment tocontinue their participation!

Felipe Vazquez-FlotaCICY

Mérida, Mé[email protected]



Show Us YouGive a Dam

Write for PSNA NewsFor more information

contact the Editor

Get Busy, Eh!

President’s Letter


natural resources can be used to pro-mote incentives for conservation byproviding an economic return on thesustainable use of those resources.This is true even when natural com-pounds are used as models to synthe-size new drugs or when they are pro-duced by biotechnological methods.

During our recent meetingseveral research projects were pre-sented, including those underway atthe University of Arizona, CornellUniversity, the Chemistry Institute atthe National University of Mexico,and the Mexican Institute of SocialSecurity. These programs providetools to achieve the goal of sustain-ing the use of natural resources in re-lation to the preservation of medici-nal plants. These programs are pro-viding the tools to governments to putplants into a prominent position in thelist of national priorities, particularlyin countries that possess an exten-

sive biodiversity. These research pro-grams must have an integrative ap-proach - in particular, fromethnobotany and pharmacology to theknowledge of how plants synthesizenatural compounds. Moreover, mod-els of how new potential drugs aretested must be revised. PSNA mem-bers now have the challenge to con-tribute to the discovery or the syn-thesis of new natural pesticides andherbicides in order to decrease the in-troduction into the environment ofharmful chemicals. The Arthur NeishYoung Investigator Symposium car-ried out during our meeting, was anexample of how new lines of researchcan provide solutions to the search fornew compounds with biological ac-tivity. The use of new paradigms canlead to the discovery of new com-pounds. For example, new emphasismust be put into the pharmacologi-cal properties of some proteins andpeptides excreted by the roots of theplants, which is a largely unexploredbiological frontier. Also, an under-standing of how some secondary

metabolites work can provide toolsfor the development of new drugs.Basic knowledge must be the corner-stone for these new developments.

Advances in chemical ecol-ogy must continue to provide knowl-edge on plant-plant, plant animal, andplant-microbe interactions at thechemical level. Molecular biologymust help to find answers to questionsthat the chemical ecologists create -for example, how did the moleculesfor signal transduction appear duringevolution? How are they synthesizedand how is their production control-led? Why were some organisms ableto acquire resistance against toxicsubstances, whereas others were not?The scenario for our work cannot bebetter. I encourage you to take up thechallenge and add your grain of sand.

Víctor Manuel Loyola-VargasCentro de Investigación Científica

de YucatánMérida, Yucatán, México

[email protected]

Phytochemistry and Biology ofLignansApril 6-9, 2003Near Cologne and Düsseldorf,Germany

For more information contact:Maike Petersen([email protected])

Phytochemistry of MarineOrganismsSeptember 21-26, 2003Chania, Crete, Greece

For more information contact:Vassilios Roussis([email protected])

MEETINGS OF INTEREST TO PHYTOCHEMISTS

Plant ChemotaxonomyJuly 2-4, 2003Kew, London, UK

For more information contact:Monique Simmonds([email protected])or Renee Grayer([email protected])

The Changing Face of NaturalProducts ChemistryJuly 12-16, 2003Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

For more information contact:Nicholas Oberlies([email protected])


Business Meeting Minutes


Student Travel Award regulations re-quire modification since under thecurrent scheme all students who at-tend the annual meeting receive a pro-portion of the available funds. Clearly,some students attending the meetingare in greater need of support thanothers. Moreover, it was proposed bythe Executive Committee that the Stu-dent Travel Awards be allocatedthrough a competitive process. Thevalue of each award should increaseto at least $500 depending on need,and the total number of awards shouldbe between 6 and 10. A committeewould be appointed to solicit appli-cations and select successful candi-dates. The committee would be com-posed of two regular members, serv-ing three-year terms, and a third mem-ber from the local organizing commit-tee of the subsequent annual meeting.The committee would endeavor tonotify awardees in advance of theannual meeting to encourage morestudent participation, and provide anopportunity to solicit matching fundsfrom other programs. There was gen-eral agreement to implement thischange.

A significant deficiency iden-tified within the Society is the pres-ence of continuity on the ExecutiveCommittee and strong leadership. Tothis end, it was suggested that thecomposition of the Advisory Commit-tee be immediately modified to in-clude several prominent members.These members were identified asVincenzo De Luca, Rick Dixon, JoeChappell, and Jonathan Gershenzon.This group has agreed to function asSociety advisors for the selection offuture meeting sites and themes, thenomination and encouragement of fu-ture Executive Committee members,and the advisement of members onvarious issues. Rick Dixon has agreedto serve a second term as Past-Presi-dent and will officially join the Advi-

phospholipase C. She has publishedthree articles out of her results.

Wolfgang Schühly


8 species in the United States. Someof them have long been used by Na-tive Americans for the treatment ofvarious ailments. Magnolia speciescontain a great variety of interestingand highly active compounds such assesquiterpene lactones, lignans andalkaloids. His study focuses on thecontent of selected bioactivesesquiterpene lactones (e.g.parthenolide) in different Magnoliaspecies and on the search for lignans,in particular, in Magnolia grandifloraand M. acuminata. After an overviewof the chemistry of Magnolia, the em-phasis in his presentation was on thelignans from M. grandiflora seeds fo-cusing on known and new com-pounds and their various biologicalactivities. These lignans (e.g.honokiol and magnolol) are com-pounds with strong anti-oxidant andantifungal activity which is shown inan assay with the anthracnose caus-ing fungus Colletotrichum sp. Otherbiological assays include testingagainst phytopathogenic fungi.Among the sesquiterpene lactones,the focus was mainly on parthenolide,which exhibits a broad range of ac-tivities including the treatment of mi-graine. M. grandiflora is a rich andreliable source of parthenolide and itscontent in its different plant tissueswas therefore investigated.

Wolfgang plans to continue re-search projects on chemically andecologically interesting plants and onpharmacological properties of theirconstituents. His approach links thefields of botany and chemistry for abetter understanding of what can belearned by observing nature.

sory Committee in 2003. A sugges-tion to increase the term of the Soci-ety President from one to two yearswas met with mixed reviews. It wasagreed to implement the other sug-gested changes first and debate thePresidency issue at a future meeting.

Peter J FacchiniUniversity of Calgary

Calgary, Alberta, [email protected]

Ileana Echevarria-Machado


(Luis Manuel,11 and Tatiana,1) shesplits her time between lab experi-ments and house work. Ileana gradu-ated in Biochemistry by La HavanaUniversity in 1989. Shortly after, shewas offered a position at the PlantPhysiology and Biochemistry Depart-ment of the National Institute for Ag-ricultural Sciences (INCA) of La Ha-vana. Since then and up to 1998,when she started her doctoral stud-ies, Ileana worked on the biochemi-cal mechanisms of tolerance to ad-verse environmental conditions indifferent crops including rice, potatoand tomato among others. During thatperiod, Ileana authored 10 articleswhich were published in differentCuban Journals and was awarded atthe Youth Scientific Conferences heldin INCA, Cuba twice in 1991 and1992.

At present, Ileana is anadvanced Ph. D. student at theGraduate Program on Plant Sciencesand Biotechnology of the Centro deInvestigación Científica de Yucatán,(Mérida, Mexico). She must obtainher degree before the end of this year.Her doctoral project focused on therole of polyamines during plantdevelopment and on its possibleparticipation in signal transductionpathways which involve the enzyme

PHYTOCHEMICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

Financial Report - January 1 to December 31, 2001

RECEIPTS:

Dues $10240.00 (includes $2760 from meeting enrollees)

Plenum/Kluwer (Royalties) 3132.13

Elsevier Royalties 2598.78

Page Charges 3360.00

Business Money Market interest 796.05

Neish Symposium Acct. interest 687.10

Fortis/Hartford money market dividend 3.90

Book sales (RAP - Vol. 35 pre-pub. order) 3000.00*

Volume 36 pre-publication order 6400.00*

Volume 34 and 35 bulk orders 2476.00*

2000 meeting advance return 2000.00

——————

TOTAL $34693.96

*Internal transfers, “taxable” $23293.96

EXPENDITURES:

Executive Committee

Editor, RAP $2500.00 (Volume 36 plus some toward Volume 35)

Secretary, newsletter 2000.00

Treasurer, directory, dues notices,

meeting/ballot mailing 1726.29

PSNA 2001 Travel Awards 4400.00 (One check for $150 not yet cleared)

PSNA 2001 Presentation Awards 500.00

Elsevier Bulk order, Volume 35 6881.25

Returned dues check and fee 44.00

——————

TOTAL $18051.54

ASSETS: (12/31/01) (12/31/00) (12/31/99)

Checking account $4205.80 $2620.09 $4073.65

Business Money Market 41316.83 26951.12 32375.89

Neish Symposium account 25258.39 24571.29 24960.33

Fortis Money Market 113.50 109.60 103.49

Fortis Advantage* 10543.00 11476.74 11796.32

——————- ——————— ———————

TOTAL $81437.52 $65728.84 $73309.68

* Investment account, subject to fluctuation. Value down $319.58 in 2000 compared to 1999, and down

$933.74 in 2001 compared to 2000.

Reviewed by:

Susan McCormick

Charles Cantrell


Volume 36 of Recent Advances in Phytochemistry - Phytochemistry in the Genomics

and Post-Genomics Eras, the symposium volume resulting from the 2001 PSNA An-

nual Meeting in Oklahoma City, OK is the third volume in this series published byElsevier. Volume 36 centers on the role of phytochemistry in the rapid developments inbiology brought about by the application of large-scale genomics approaches.

Elsevier Publishes Volume 36 ofRecent Advances in Phytochemistry

Genomics has altered the way in which weview plant biology by providing a globalview of cellular processes. Sequencing pro-grams are documenting expressed genes inmany species, but we must still identify thefunction of most genes. Several functionalgenomic approaches can address plant genefunction on a large scale. Plants are combi-natorial chemists par excellence, and under-standing the principles that relate enzymestructure to function will create unlimitedpossibilities to generate novel biologicallyactive natural products. Knowledge of themolecular genetics of plant natural productbiosynthesis will also facilitate pathway en-gineering for plant improvement and humanbenefit. Phytochemistry truly has a great fu-ture in the genomics and post-genomics eras.

The PSNA, under terms of our contract, can sell you this volume at a 40%

discount. To purchase Volume 36 please contact the Treasurer, Charles Cantrell.

Contributors to this timely volume explore a wide range of topics that include:✔ Bioinformatics and computational biology

✔ Metabolomics as a component in functional genomic studies

✔ Metabolite profiling

✔ Biopanning by activation tagging

✔ Functional genomics of Cytochromes P450 and their role in biosynthesis

✔ Sequence-based approaches to alkaloid biosynthesis gene identification

✔ Structurally guided alteration of biosyntheses

Recent Advances in Phytochemistry SeriesPSNA members receive a 40% discount on the following titles

Volume 35 (2000)** Regulation of Phytochemicals by Molecular Techniques(List $210.00, PSNA $112.00)

Volume 34 (1999)** Evolution of Metabolic Pathways(List $222.50, PSNA $133.50)

Volume 33 (1998) Phytochemicals in Human Health Protection, Nutrition, Plant Defense(List $165.00, PSNA $99.00)

Volume 32 (1997) Phytochemical Signals and Plant-Microbe Interactions(List $95.00, PSNA $57.00)

Volume 31 (1996) Functionality of Food Phytochemicals(List $114.00, PSNA $68.40)

Volume 30 (1995) Phytochemical Diversity and Redundancy in Ecological Interactions(List $89.50, PSNA $53.70)

Volume 29 (1994) Phytochemistry of Medicinal Plants(List $71.00, PSNA $42.60)

Volume 28 (1993) Genetic Engineering of Plant Secondary Metabolism(List $89.50, PSNA $53.70)

Volume 27 (1992) Phytochemical Potential of Tropical Plants(List $79.50, PSNA $47.70)

Volume 26 (1991) Phenolic Metabolism in Plants(List $89.50, PSNA $53.70)

Volume 25 (1990) Modern Phytochemical Methods(List $85.00, PSNA $51.00)

Volume 24 (1989) Biochemistry of the Mevalonic Acid Pathway to Terpenoids(List $85.00, PSNA $51.00)

Volume 23 (1988) Plant Nitrogen Metabolism(List $89.50, PSNA $53.70)

Volume 22 (1987) Opportunities for Phytochemistry in Plant Biotechnology(List $59.50, PSNA $35.70)

Volume 21 (1986) Phytochemical Effects of Environmental Compounds(List $75.00, PSNA $45.00)

Volume 20 (1985) The Shikimic Acid Pathway(List $55.00, PSNA $33.00)

**Volumes 34 and 35 are available from our new publisher, Elsevier. Please contact the PSNA Treasurer,Charles Cantrell, for information on ordering these volumes.

Please send the copy/copies marked above.NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS MUST INCLUDE APPLICABLE SALES TAX.

All offers must be prepaid. Major credit cards accepted.Make checks payable to Plenum Publishing Corporation.

PLEASE SUBMIT CHECK OR CREDIT CARD PAYMENT FOR THE TOTAL OF THIS FLYER ONLY.DO NOT COMBINE WITH PAYMENT FOR ANY OTHER PLENUM PURCHASE.

Type of Card: Expiration Date: Account No.:

Signature: Name:

Address:

City: State/Country: Zip/Postal Code:

FAX Number: Return To: Plenum Publishing Corporation ATTN: K. McDonough 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10003

Phytochemical Society of North America

Membership Application

Please fill in the following application and return to the Treasurer with your dues payment. We are also inthe process of updating the PSNA website, so please respond to the question regarding posting informa-tion on the website and give information on your personal web page if you wish it to be included. Once yourapplication has been processed, you will receive newsletters and special mailings. You are also eligible forPSNA member discounts on the Recent Advances in Phytochemistry series.

Please make check or money order payable to the Phytochemical Society of North America. Paymentmust be made in U.S. dollars, drawn on a U.S. bank. Traveler’s Checks or Canadian Postal Money Orders,payable in U.S. dollars, are also acceptable. We are unable to accept payment via credit card.

Dues schedule: Life (or emeritus) member - no chargeRegular member - $40.00 per yearStudent member - $20.00 per year

Return this statement along with your payment to:

Dr. Charles Cantrell, PSNA TreasurerHauser, Inc.4161 Specialty Place

Longmont, CO 80504

Please take a moment to provide/update the following information:

Name (Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms.):

Mailing Address:

City: State/Province: Zip/Postal Code:

Phone: Fax: E-Mail:

Homepage URL:

The PSNA homepage is now available at www.psna-online.orgMay we include/link your directory/homepage information on the PSNA website? Yes/No

Research Interests (circle up to 4 items):A. Acetylenes S. Terpenoids stressB. Alkaloids T. Vitamins nn. Industrial applicationsC. Amino acids/proteins aa. Biochemistry/physiology of oo. Structure identificationD. Coumarins herbicides pp. Marine natural compoundsE. Cyanogenics bb. Enzymology qq. Medicinal chemistryF. Flavonoids cc. Cell wall chemistry rr. Membrane structure/functionG. Glucosinolates dd. Chemotaxonomy ss. Molecular/immunologicalH. Lignans ee. Biotechnology techniquesI. Lipids ff. Plant-insect interactions tt. Nitrogen fixation/metabolismJ Nitrogen compounds gg. Plant-microbe interactions uu. Pharmacology/pharmacognosyK. Nucleic acids hh. Plant-plant interactions vv. Plant pathologyL. Organic acids ii. Chemical reactions/organic ww. Plant geneticsM. Phenolics synthesis xx. Recognition-cell surfaceN. Pigments jj. Biochemistry of secondary interactionsO. Quinones metabolism yy. Tissue/cell cultureP. Stilbenes kk. Fungal metabolism zz. Toxicology of naturalQ. Sugars/polysaccharides ll. Growth regulators productsR. Sulfur compounds mm. Biochemistry/physiology of OTHER: _______________________

Documents

PSNA Newsletter 2psna-online.org/PSNAoldweb/newslet/vol42(2).pdf · The Happy Wanderer ... 4,000 members of the press. The ma-jor outcome was a document, the Plan ... elling to the