Caithness Biotechnologies: Innate immunity research and drug discovery

Please click here to read more about the plant species included in the Phytotitre library.

For an in depth discussion of the relative merits and disadvantages of screening natural product and synthetic compound libraries, please click here.

Screening of the Phytotitre collection is considered "out of scope" with respect to the Nagoya protocol. Please click here for further information on how the use of our Phytotitre collection complies with Nagoya protocol regulations.

Natural product screening has several pros and cons in comparison to synthetic compound screening. Discussion of these points, including the specific ways in which the Phytotitre natural product library has been optimised to address these issues while maximising ease of use and potential for discovery of active compounds, is available here.

Please click here to read how more focussed libraries are taking the lead in modern drug discovery.

Please click here to read more on the potential for discovery of novel compounds and IP generation using natural product screening.

Sample data from our own basic screens of the Phytotitre library are provided free of charge for research, student project and educational purposes. Please click here to view a current list of available screening data.

If you are new to natural product library screening, or the separation of active compounds from natural extracts, please click here to view a selection of basic methods and online resources which may be of assistance to your research programme.

Please click here to view a list of publications using our products.

Please click here to read some recent highlights in natural product research.

The list below collates links to several of the many online resources available for those seeking to perform natural product screens and identify bioactive phytochemicals.

OMICtools offers a useful list of links to natural product databases.
http://omictools.com/natural-products-category

The Dictionary of Natural Products Online includes information on all compounds contained in the Dictionary of Natural Products.
http://dnp.chemnetbase.com/intro/

Chem-TCM is a digital database of individual phytochemicals of plants used in the traditional Chinese herbal medicine.
http://www.chemtcm.com/

Super Natural II is a natural product database with information on 325,508 compounds.
http://bioinf-applied.charite.de/supernatural_new/index.php

The Metlin database for metabolite identification offers a very simple m/z based search option.
https://metlin.scripps.edu/metabo_search_alt2.php

Universal Natural Product Database collates information on 197,201 3D structures.
http://pkuxxj.pku.edu.cn/UNPD/

This Youtube recording, presented by Drs Jim Wells and Michelle Arkin of UCSF, introduces the major concepts of library screening for beginners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQKppAAR3ME

This article provides a good example of the steps involved in compound separation by HPLC, and subsequent structural identification: Shibata T. et al J Biol Chem 289:32757-72 (2014)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4239626/