Over 5,000 new natural product structures are reported in the literature each year from microbial, plant, animal, fungal and marine sources. A significant percentage of these compounds represents novel structural types which could provide new leads for the development of antitumor agents. The general objective of this contract is to survey the current literature in the natural products and related areas and to report to the Project Officer in a prescribed form chemical structures and other information that may be of interest to the natural Products Branch. More specifically, the contractor is required (a) to search a minimum of 150 journals or abstracts and select new compounds isolated from plant, animal, microbial, fungal and marine sources, and (b) to provide the Project Officer summary information sheets in booklet form, giving such information as the name of the compound, its chemical structure, the class of compound to which the product belongs, any biological activity shown by the compound (such as antitumor activity, cytotoxicity, antiviral activity, antifungal activity, inhibitory activity against enzymes, against protein and nucleic acid synthesis, etc., toxicity), the name of the organism from which the product was isolated, and the quantity of the compound isolated. The contractor is required, in addition, to supply an alphabetical listing of all new compounds he selected and to submit bimonthly all information gathered.
