College of Idaho students explore possible medicinal uses of sagebrush

College of Idaho chemistry professor Dr. Carolyn Dadabay and her student research team are deconstructing sagebrush leaves from local deserts to look for bioactive chemicals that could inhibit the bodys detoxification system. In short, theyre researching medicinal uses of sagebrush.

In the right dose amount, the chemicals could help the human body keep medication in its system for longer periods of time, officials said.

One of the biggest problems in developing drugs that work effectively is that your body is very good at getting rid of drugs, Dadabay pointed out. It has different mechanisms for getting rid of foreign compounds, and it uses those mechanisms to get rid of drugs. Then the drugs dont work.

Recently, students from the C of I and research partner Boise State University were collecting two types of sagebrush - whats known as basin big sagebrush and low sagebrush. The students snipped off leaves and put them into ziplock bags destined for the lab.

While the College of Idaho is running a preclinical study on the compounds found in sagebrush, collaborator and Boise State biology professor Dr. Jennifer Forbey is looking at the ecological side of what compounds attract pygmy rabbits and sage grouse to nibble on one sagebrush plant versus another.

The smell and toxic nature of sagebrush repels most animals from eating it. But pygmy rabbits and sage grouse have a diet consisting mainly of the desert plant. Theyve adapted and found a way around its toxic nature. But even then, sagebrush makes chemicals that even those animals dont want to eat, Dadabay said. And its those plants she is interested in.

The chemistry that (the animals) are avoiding might be the place to look for very powerful drugs, she added.

One of the students examining those chemicals is senior chemistry major Andrew Nguyen. He analyzes the sagebrush samples in the C of I lab, using a high-performance liquid chromatography machine to separate compounds of interest, such as polyphenols. The next step is to eventually identify specific compounds and see what effects they would have in the body.

The College of Idaho and Boise State are both part of the Idaho INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) program. The goals of the program are to establish a research network among Idaho institutions and increase that networks capacity, to provide students with research opportunities, and to enhance science and technology knowledge of the states workforce. Dadabays project recently was awarded an INBRE grant totaling $764,000 over the next five years.

The really great thing is we are setting up this infrastructure for drug discovery and were spreading it across the state, Dadabay said.

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College of Idaho students explore possible medicinal uses of sagebrush