Crikey! scientists are probing Steve's 'unique' springs

Behind that personality you saw on the TV there was a real conservation strategy.

Professor Ron Quinn

Scientists have descended on a series of unique springs found on a wetland reserve created by the late Steve Irwin, in a hunt for breakthrough drugs to treat human disease.

The freshwater springs are highly acidic and this has lead to the evolution of specialised plants which, experts say, could hold previously unseen chemical compounds with therapeutic uses.

While not as dramatic as wrestling a crocodile in the Irwin style, Queensland-based Professor Ron Quinn now is working to track down and isolate these unique compounds.

"The people who know this area say it is a very unique freshwater spring," says Prof Quinn, who is director of the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies at Griffith University.

"That spring, it's an oasis isn't it, it creates its own environment where you get different pressures.

"It means plants adapt ... and biological diversity results in chemical diversity, so there are different molecules there and they may indeed do something (useful)."

The springs were discovered on The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, 135,000ha of wetlands on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.

In partnership with Australia Zoo, and with the support of Steve Irwin's widow Terri Irwin, work is now underway to collect an estimated two to three thousand plant samples at the site.

These flower, seed, root and bark samples will be collected from several hundred different species, and through different seasons.

The collection work is expected to take more than two years.

"We collect plants that occur in this region, we then dry them, grind it up to a powder ... and test that extract for pharmacological or biological activity," says Prof Quinn.

"If it shows activity in the test then we isolate the component responsible, and this could then go further.

"There are many plant products that are used as therapeutic agents - things like taxol which is a major therapy for breast cancer."

Taxol was isolated from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree in the 1960s and Prof Quinn says about half of all drugs now in use globally were derived from some from of "natural product".

Prof Quinn says the work should be seen as part of Steve Irwin's ongoing legacy.

"Behind that personality you saw on the TV there was a real conservation strategy," he says.

"They have built up a significant landholding around Australia Zoo and this sort of initiative ... could help up develop some new therapeutically useful drug."