By Anna Salleh for ABC Science Online

"An extract from a flowering desert plant used as traditional medicine by Indigenous Australians could one day be used to coat hip transplants and other biomedical devices, researchers say.

Professor Hans Griesser and colleagues are presenting their work at a biomaterials conference at the University of New South Wales in Sydney this week.

"We can learn so much from nature and traditional knowledge," says Professor Griesser, a materials scientist from the University of South Australia.

He says Aboriginal people use leaves of eremophila plants, which grow in Australia's desert areas, to make ointments for skin abrasions and gargles for throat infections.....

Professor Griesser also says the research team wants to make sure the Aboriginal community get some benefit from any commercial exploitation of the novel compounds.

"We have carefully thought about that because obviously we don't want to do the morally wrong thing," he said.

Professor Griesser says Aboriginal-run organic eremophila plantations could be grown on arid land that is of little use to conventional farming."

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