Open Cut » Environment
This project investigated the potential development of Pittosporum angustifolium (“Gumby Gumby”) for establishment within a medicinal plantation Post Mining Land Use (PMLU) on Bowen Basin mine sites. Built on an awareness of this species' traditional medicinal use, the project undertook to evaluate the anticancer activity of a range of plant extracts and investigate opportunities for scaling medicinal Gumby Gumby as a high value PMLU.
The project focused on the identification and ecological analysis of the species within areas of interest to Queensland coal mining industry with more than 150 Gumby Gumby plants identified within the research area. Observations were made of companion tree species, plant phenotype, soil classification, and took soil samples for further chemical and physical analysis. The natural occurrence of Gumby Gumby in terms of its position within landforms, its relationship with other plant species and underlying soil characteristics and features with reported.
The Translational Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney was engaged to undertake five different extraction methods on six Gumby Gumby subspecies to generate a panel of 30 potential anti-cancer drug extracts.
Plant samples were obtained from 45 Gumby Gumby plants from a wide range of growing conditions across the survey area. Restriction-site associated DNA sequencing technology (RAD-seq) was used to evaluate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) differences between plants. Analysis of this data revealed significant genetic diversity within naturally occurring Gumby Gumby populations in Central Queensland.
The evaluation of anti-cancer compounds within only six plants provided insufficient data to correlate genetic variation with anti-cancer activity. The project engaged Tissue Culture Australia to evaluate the potential for using micropropagation to produce clonal material from verified medicinal plants. Multiple attempts to initiate tissue culture using coppiced regrowth from field-grown plants were unsuccessful.
The project evaluated the use of Gumby Gumby as a high value PMLU alternative to generic native woodlands in Queensland's Bowen Basin with potential benefits described in the report.
Landform analysis of the species occurrence relative to slope gradient and slope aspect suggests that the PMLU has flexible site assignment potential. The tabulation of this data within this report aims to provide a guide for mine sites to identify suitable areas for this alternative PMLU establishment. Of significance for PMLU scalability, however, is the observation that highly saline or sodic spoils may limit Gumby Gumby plant establishment and growth.