Old fence to some, goldmine to BioProspect

An ancient fence, its posts hewn from local trees, caught Matt Kealley's eye during a bioprospecting expedition in north Queensland's monsoonal woodlands a few years ago.

Although it had seen more than 100 wet seasons, and the area was littered with termite mounds, the fence was undamaged. Kealley, a field scientist for Brisbane biotechnology company BioProspect (ASX:BPO), took some wood samples to identify the tree species.

Last week BioProspect lodged a Patent Cooperation Treaty for a remarkable compound, isolated from the wood of the living trees. It kills termites on contact, is a termite anti-feedant, and a termite repellent.

BioProspect is keeping the identity of the tree species a secret, but the compound, code-named AP778, has shown great promise as a novel, safe compound for controlling termites, which cause an estimated $100 million worth of damage to homes and wooden structures every year.

In addition to its three-way action, AP778 has very low toxicity to other insects and vertebrates, including humans, and appears to have excellent credentials for environmental safety.

BioProspect CEO Selwyn Snell says the patent covers all these activities -- and as a bonus, AP778 appears to be environmentally safe, with very low toxicity to other insects and vertebrates

Snell describes AP778's combination of attributes as "unique". He says its promise is enhanced by the fact that Australia and many other industrialised nations banned organochlorine-based termiticides nearly a decade ago, and no suitable replacement has yet been identified.

Current compounds used to control termites, such as permethrin and chlorpyrifos, do not provide adequate control in many cases, and the market is looking for safer, more efficient treatments.

Snell says that early indications are that AP778 is not only effective, but would be safe enough for homeowners to apply it themselves. Current termiticides can only be applied by licensed pest controllers.

BioProspect is experimenting with different formulations, including oil-based preparations that would be applied to homes and wooden structures as a durable barrier against termite attack.

BioProspect has research agreements with the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and Southern Cross University in Lismore. It is sponsoring a UWS research team that is well advanced on testing AP778.

The molecule is small, and simple enough to be synthesised, so there should be no need to harvest wild trees, says Snell.

AP778 is BioProspect's second lead compound -- earlier this year, the company announced it was ready to negotiate licensing agreements for another natural insecticide, Qcide, extracted from the tissues of a tropical eucalypt.

Experiments by a Japanese company showed that Qcide had exceptional insecticidal properties -- it has a rapid knockdown activity against mosquitoes and a strain of housefly that is resistant to conventional pesticides, and also kills insects rapidly.