P.B. Reese B.Sc.(General), U.W.I., D.Phil., Sussex. Senior Lecturer (Organic) pbreese@uwimona.edu.jm

1. Medicinal Plants. Plants, mainly from the family Labiatae and Scrophulariaceae families, are being examined to isolate and characterize the major natural products. Identification of metabolites and biological activity is an integral part of this project.

2. Microbial transformations. Natural products of agricultural and pharmaceutical interest are chemically modified by selected strains of fungi in an effort to produce a range of new analogues with enhanced bioactivity.

3. Steroids. Partial synthesis of steroid hormones is studied with the aim of identifying cheaper routes to the production of these costly biochemicals.

• P.B. Reese, J.R. Hanson, J.A. Takahashi and M.R. Wilson, "Biotransformation of some Stemodane Diterpenoids by Cephalosporium aphidicola", Phytochemistry, 1994, 36, 1391.

• P.B. Reese, P.L. Ruddock, "An unexpected product from the reaction of Mercury(II) Trifluoroacetate with 3-substituted Steroids", Journal of Chemical Research (S), 1994, 442.

• P.B. Reese, R.B.R. Porter, L.A.D. Williams, and D.J. Williams, "Acaricidal and insecticidal activities of Cadina-4,10(15)-dien-3-one", Phytochemistry, 1995, 40, 735

• P.B. Reese and R.J. Lancashire. Microwave Oven Reaction Enhanced (MORE) preparation of stilbenediamines. Electronic Conference on Trends in Organic Chemistry (ECTOC-1), Eds. H.S. Rzepa and J. G. Goodman (CD-ROM), Royal Society of Chemistry publications, 1995. See a copy here or the other ECTOC papers held at Imperial College.

• P.B. Reese, P.L. Ruddock, D.J. Williams, "The scope and limitations of the reaction of D⁵ -steroids with mercury(II) trifluoroacetate", Steroids, 1998, 63, 650.