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UH chemist to be
honored for marine work

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Star-Bulletin staff

A pioneering University of Hawaii chemist will be honored as the father of marine natural products at the 2000 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies starting Thursday in Honolulu.

Paul Josef Scheuer helped develop and focus attention on the oceans as a source of products to fight diseases. He "can look at a spot in the ocean and see so much more than others see," said his son, Jonathan.

A recognition ceremony will be held 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Sheraton Waikiki. A two-day Scheuer Symposium will follow at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, with the latest research on marine natural products.

Scheuer looks for natural chemicals in marine organisms that can help to treat human diseases.

Originator of the term "marine natural products," he is observing his 50th anniversary at the UH with a significant development -- the start of human clinical trials in Europe of Kahalalide F (KF), a potential cancer treatment that he discovered in a Hawaiian marine mollusk.

It may be useful for prostate, lung and colon cancers.

More than 10,000 scientists are expected at the congress, held every five years to report the latest research on foods and drugs to fight and prevent diseases.

The meeting will continue through Tuesday at various hotels, primarily the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Sheraton Waikiki. It is hosted by the American Chemical Society with counterparts in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

"The World's Oceans -- Medicine Chest of the Future?" will be discussed at a news conference at noon Thursday to be broadcast live on www.acs.org/pacific2000/webcast.html.

Participants in the event, at the Renaissance Ilikai Hotel, will include William Fenical, Scripps Institute of Oceanography; and Dr. Murray Munro of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Fenical will report on potential anti-cancer agents produced by marine fungi and Munro will discuss a compound from a sponge that is a possible anti-cancer agent.

Among findings to be reported in more than 8,000 papers at the conference:

Chemicals in wasabi, the green horseradish served with sushi, may prevent tooth decay.

Soaking brown rice several hours before it's cooked enhances its nutritional value.

The Hawaiian noni plant kills the tuberculosis bacterium, which could lead to alternative medicines to fight drug-resistant strains of the disease.

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Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii