A Chemical Investigation of Australian Winteraceae

Abstract

The Winteraceae are a small primitive family of angiosperms endemic to the cool rainforests and montane subtropics of South America, Melanesia, Australasia, and South-East Asia below the Wallace line.The medicinal value of Winteraceae plants branches from extensive use in traditional medicine regimens to use in modern clinical applications. Nonvolatile drimane sesquiterpenes do not occur broadly in nature. However, they are reported to be a chemotaxonomic characteristic of the Winteraceae. Many of those identified from the Winteraceae comprise structural features that are either unique to the family or identified from a minimal number of natural sources.3 Biological investigations on the drimane structure class have identified several activities attractive for drug discovery and may be linked to their usefulness in traditional medicines. Bubbia and Tasmannia are the only Winteraceae genera with species endemic to Australia. Except for Tasmannia lanceolata and studies on the essential oil content of both genera, the chemistry of the Australian Winteraceae is poorly studied and remains an unexploited source of potentially new biologically active natural products.The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the chemistry of unexplored Australian Winteraceae species to identify new drimane sesquiterpene natural products and improve the current knowledge of the chemistry of Australian Winteraceae. This was achieved by exploring the chemistry of two Australian Winteraceae species.