Antibiotic properties of the Atun tree

A 252-year-old botany text may seem an unlikely place to prospect for potential new medical treatments, but a team of scholars have done just that, and the effort may lead to the development of an important new antibiotic.

The researchers are a diverse group: a physician, a neuroscientist, three botanists, a graduate student in molecular biology and an expert in Germanic languages.

The book they studied, “The Ambonese Herbal,” was written by Georg Eberhard Rumpf, now known by the Latinized name Rumphius, an employee of the Dutch East India Company who spent most of his life documenting the properties and uses of the plants of Ambon, an island in Indonesia. The book was published in seven volumes from 1741 to 1755, nearly a half-century after Rumphius’ death.

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