Bioprospecting as a strategy for conservation and sustainable use of the Brazilian Flora

Abstract

In Brazil, research with natural products had a strong impulse when FAPESP supported the creation of the Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Products of the Institute of Chemistry of USP (1966). In 1999, FAPESP launched the Research Program in the Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (BIOTA-FAPESP), which intensified the sustainable exploitation of biodiversity, and which evolved to form the Biota Network for Bioprospection and Bioassays (BIOprospecTA), which integrates groups from all over the country, optimizing the use of the skills already installed for the bioprospecting of microorganisms, plants, invertebrates, vertebrates and marine organisms. Of the 104 projects related to plant sciences, 35 carried out bioprospection of Brazilian flora, belonging to the areas of Chemistry, Botany, Genetics, Plant Physiology, Plant Morphology, Plant (Chemo)taxonomy, Ecosystem Ecology, Plant Genetics. Physical Sciences, Forest Resources, Forestry Engineering, Agronomy, leading to thousands of publications, engagement of hundreds of students and a deeper understanding of natural products in different biological models through macromolecules analysis aided by computational and spectrometric strategies, in addition to pharmacological evaluations. The development of omics approaches led to a more comprehensive view of the chemical profile of an organism, and enabled integrated and concomitant studies of several samples, and faster annotation of known molecules, through the use of hyphenated and chemometric techniques, and molecular networking. This also helped to overcome the lack of information on the safety and efficacy of herbal preparations, in projects dealing with the standardization of herbal products, according to international standards. The BIOTA-FAPESP program has also focused on environmental aspects, in accordance with the principles of Green Chemistry and has had positive effects on international collaboration, on the number and impact of scientific publications and on partnership with companies, a crucial step to add value and expand the production chain of bioproducts. Also, the compilation, systematization and sharing of data were contemplated with the creation of the NUBBEDB database, of free access, and that integrates with international databases (ACD/labs, American Chemical Society – ACS), helping researchers and companies in the development from different areas of science, technology, strengthening the bioeconomy and subsidizing public policies.

Twenty-five years of natural products research in NuBBE

“…However, over the past 25 years, the research of natural products was greatly benefited thanks to the development of new and improved sample preparation protocols, including the increasing availability of high-resolution separation and state-of-the-art analytical techniques and instrumentation, combinations like LC-MS, CE-MS, LC-NMR, or LC-DAD-SPE-NMR-MS, as well as novel algorithms, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics tools and workflows. These techniques made it possible for the annotation, the identification, and even the full structural elucidation of both known or new lead compounds, without the employment of timeconsuming isolation and purification protocols in a significantly reduced time and using considerably lower sample amounts (Silva et al, 2022).…”

“…Undoubtedly, the proper credit must be given to the classic phytochemistry methodologies, which allowed us to build the base of the modern metabolomics approaches, which have been even more used nowadays. By using traditional extracts preparation, fractionation, and compound isolation, hundreds of compounds had their structure fully elucidated and fed the modern and curated compounds databases, boosting the development of new search algorithms and computational tools for extract dereplication and fast compound annotation (Pilon et al, 2020;Silva et al, 2022).…”

“…The future of analyzing Frontiers in Natural Products frontiersin.org complex natural matrices holds great promise and presents opportunities for further progress through the integration of conventional methods and cutting-edge computational tools and technologies (Hu and Qiu, 2023). The use of supercomputers is able to offer massive data processing and analysis capabilities, allowing a broader and more efficient approach to the search for molecules with therapeutic potential, allowing precise molecular modeling, aided by complex calculations related to molecular dynamics, property prediction, and virtual screening of compounds (Silva et al, 2022). Artificial intelligence, allied with data science and machine learning algorithms are an asset to recognize molecular features and establish correlations within large data sets, helping to identify structure-activity relationships and predict biological activities (Shi et al, 2023).…”

“…One such group is the Nucleus of Bioassays, Biosynthesis, and Ecophysiology of Natural Products (NuBBE), located at the São Paulo State University (UNESP). Since its inception in 1998, NuBBE has been dedicated to studying natural products from Brazilian biodiversity, particularly focusing on plant species from the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest (Valli et al, 2018;Silva et al, 2022;Vieira et al, 2023b).…”

Amazonian fermentations: an analysis of industrial and social technology as tools for the development of bioeconomy in the region

“…Production would take place on small rural properties or community associations, and products would be sold at local fairs, cooperatives, and even online, allowing access to distant markets. This social approach has the potential to valorize family farming and protect the region's natural resources (Silva et al, 2022).…”