WIDE VARIETY OF RESEARCH WORK IN DOMINION LAB.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 16, 25 July 1949, Page 4

WIDE VARIETY OF RESEARCH WORK IN DOMINION LAB.

Chemical research on New Zealand timber, investigations on wellknown drugs from plants, an advisory service to industry, and analytical work for the Police Department in cases of suspected poisoning indicate the range of work in one section of the Dominion Laboratory. The resin from rimu wood has recently been converted into a substance similar in type to natural? oestrogenic hormones by the chemists of the Organic Section of the Dominion Laboratory, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The compund is now being tested for physiological activity. Considerable interest has been shown in other countries in the possibility of utilising rimu resin in this -way. Samples have been sent to England and the U.S.A. for investigations that will supplement the tests now taking place in New Zealand.

The range of work of this Section is considerable. For the State Forest Service extensive chemical investigations have been made in order to determine certain properties of wood intended for pulp and paper production in view of the proposed development of a largescale industry in this country. Industry is advised on problems concerning a wide range of materials, such as plastics, rubber, adhesive, resins, wood and cellulose, textiles, extracts from wool for cosmetics, etc.

Another important branch of the work is analyses for the Police Department, covering at times suspected cases of poisoning. Syntheses of organic compounds are also frequently made for other Departments.

It is interesting to recall that during the war much of the work of this Section was given to the development of substitutes for products in short supply, and to the production, in co-operation with the Department’s Botany Division, of official drugs such as digitalis, belladonna, stramonium, hyoscyamus, and ergot. Not only were, these drugs used in New Zealand, but considerable quantities of some of them were exported. This work included the examination of many New Zealand and Samoan plants for sources of drugs and essential oils.. For the prosecution of the war, too, a substitute wax sealing mixture for hand grenades was developed, ■ and it proved highly satisfactory; work was also done on “dopes” for aircraft, and on other materials.