Rare plants on Irwin's land probed

Scientists are testing a series of unique springs on a wetland reserve created by the late Steve Irwin in a hunt for new drugs to treat diseases.

The freshwater springs are highly acidic and this has led to specialised plants which, experts say, could hold previously unseen chemical compounds with therapeutic uses.

Professor Ron Quinn is working to track down these unique compounds.

"The people who know this area say it is a unique freshwater spring," said Professor Quinn, director of the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies at Griffith University in Queensland.

"That spring, it's an oasis ... it creates its own environment where you get different pressures.

"It means plants adapt ... and biological diversity results in chemical diversity, so there are different molecules there and they may indeed do something useful."

The springs were discovered on the 135,000ha Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.

In partnership with Australia Zoo, and with the support of Steve Irwin's widow Terri, work has begun to collect up to 3000 plant samples at the site.

The collection work is expected to take more than two years as the flower, seed, root and bark samples will be taken in different seasons.

"There are many plant products that are used as therapeutic agents - things like taxol [from Pacific yew tree bark] which is a therapy for breast cancer," said Professor Quinn.

He said about half of all drugs in use globally were derived from a "natural product".

- AAP