Southern Cross University is a core partner in the Wound Management Innovation Cooperative Research Centre, which comprises 21 partner organisations including universities, government departments, healthcare organisations and industry. The vision of the CRC is to improve wound healing and quality-of-life for people with wounds, and to provide cost-effective wound care that lessens the burden on the health system. The CRC is funded for an 8-year period (2010-2018) by the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centres Program and the partner organisations and has a total budget of $100 million.

Chronic wounds, such as venous leg ulcers and diabetic wounds, affect upwards of half a million Australians and cost the health system and estimated $2.6 billion dollars annually. The Wound Management Innovation CRC aims to transform wound care through the outcomes of its three research programmes: Enabling Technologies, Tools and Therapies, and Clinical Application.

Southern Cross Plant Science is currently involved in two Wounds CRC projects. Dr Hans Wohlmuth leads the project Plant compounds for wound healing in the Tools and Therapies programme. This project seeks to tap into the vast chemical diversity of secondary plant metabolites and focuses on identifying compounds with anti-inflammatory and/or antibacterial activity, as both inflammation and infection can play key roles in chronic wounds. This project is being conducted in collaboration with the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia.

Southern Cross Plant Science is also involved in a second Wounds CRC project, Application technologies for anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory bioactives, which seeks to develop methodologies for the controlled application of wound healing compounds. This project is being led by the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia.

Staff and students on the Wounds CRC projects include Dr Hans Wohlmuth, Dr Linda Banbury, Dr Qingyao Shou, Ms Xiaoxiang He and Mr Dane Renshaw.

Current research interests include:

• Screening of more than 350 plant species for anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antioxidant activity
• Bioassay-guided fractionation, isolation and characterisation of active compounds using chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques, including mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
• Chemistry and biological activity of native Australian plants
• Plant use by Australian Indigenous peoples for wound healing

Funding/collaborators

• Wound Management Innovation Cooperative Research Centre
• Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia

Research outcomes

• Identification of plant compounds that inhibit tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), nitric oxide and/or prostaglandin E2
• Identification of plant compounds with antibacterial activity
• Identification of plant compounds with antioxidant activity
• Review of plants used for wound healing by Australian Indigenous peoples
• New knowledge about the chemistry and biological activity of native Australian plants

Delivery of research

• Honours thesis: Renshaw DE (2011). Investigation into the wound healing potential of Australian native plants. Lismore: Southern Cross University.
• The Science Show (13 Aug 2011, Radio National, ABC): Plants provide start for development of pharmaceuticals. Robyn Williams interview with Dr Hans Wohlmuth about the Plant Compounds for Wound Healing project.
• Wounds Cooperative Research Centre: Dr Hans Wohlmuth. 22 Feb 2011. iTunes U.

Contact

Dr Hans Wohlmuth hans.wohlmuth@scu.edu.au

Publications

Shou Q, Banbury LK, Renshaw DE, Lambley EH, Mon H, Macfarlane GA, Griesser HJ, Heinrich MM, Wohlmuth H. Biologically active dibenzofurans from Pilidiostigma glabrum Burret, an endemic Australian Myrtaceae. (under review)

Updated: 18 March 2013