Rolfe
Adult human female
Yes, really. Tonight's Horizon. The fight against malaria.
Way back in the 18th century a herbal medicine called "china bark" was found to be effective against malaria. Some time later the active principle was isolated, quinine. A derivative of this drug (chloroquine, I think) was the mainstay of the fight against malaria for many years. However, as the WHO stepped up the pressure to eradicate the disease, the Plasmodium parasite became resistant to it. As derivatives were devised, resistance to these developed too.
Eradication of the Anopheles mosquito by DDT also fell into trouble due to the development of resistant strains, and the goal of a vaccine has never quite been reached.
What would make a big difference would be an anti-malarial drug which was unrelated to quinine.
A big push for this was started 30 years ago in China, partly because Chairman Mao distrusted "western" medicine which included the quinine derivatives. Chinese researchers tried 200 (or was it 300?) TCM herbal remedies alleged to be effective against malaria, but nothing had any effect. Then they tried a sort of tea made with a common herb, artemesia. It showed some effect.
They spent a long time purifying the active ingredient, which was dubbed "artemisin" in the west. Initial attempts to get hold of the drug for testing were stymied by the Chinese distrust of the US military who were on the WHO malaria team, but in the end the herb was found to be common in America, and research got going in the west.
Worked like a charm. Pleasant to take, no nasty side-effects, quick clinical response even for patients with multiple-drug-resistant malaria, and (so far) no resistance. Scenes of neat packets of pills of artemesin coming off the production lines and being given to grateful Thai peasants.
So what's the catch? They're still extracting the stuff from the plant, and the world can't grow enough of it to supply the squillions of doses needed worldwide.
Enter some extremely smart chemists, who manage to synthesise an analogue that can be manufactured on a production line. After some deep trouble getting a molecule that is both water-soluble and parasiticidal, they appear to have succeeded. Clinical trials started in January. Promising, but still early days.
The programme also reported that there have been new breakthroughs in the quest for a vaccine, and that maybe in another ten years they'll have one (where have I heard that before?). But in the meantime, artemisia and its derivatives should buy the time needed by offering a useful treatment to infectid individuals.
So, isn't that just how traditional herbal medicine should be used? Find out what actually does work (out of hundreds of candidates), find out what the active principle is, make a purified and standardised preparation, and if possible make a synthetic version to save having to turn the entire arable resources of the planet over to growing the stuff.
Or of course you could just go to your TCM practitioner and take pot luck that the herb he chooses happens to be the right one....
Rolfe.
Way back in the 18th century a herbal medicine called "china bark" was found to be effective against malaria. Some time later the active principle was isolated, quinine. A derivative of this drug (chloroquine, I think) was the mainstay of the fight against malaria for many years. However, as the WHO stepped up the pressure to eradicate the disease, the Plasmodium parasite became resistant to it. As derivatives were devised, resistance to these developed too.
Eradication of the Anopheles mosquito by DDT also fell into trouble due to the development of resistant strains, and the goal of a vaccine has never quite been reached.
What would make a big difference would be an anti-malarial drug which was unrelated to quinine.
A big push for this was started 30 years ago in China, partly because Chairman Mao distrusted "western" medicine which included the quinine derivatives. Chinese researchers tried 200 (or was it 300?) TCM herbal remedies alleged to be effective against malaria, but nothing had any effect. Then they tried a sort of tea made with a common herb, artemesia. It showed some effect.
They spent a long time purifying the active ingredient, which was dubbed "artemisin" in the west. Initial attempts to get hold of the drug for testing were stymied by the Chinese distrust of the US military who were on the WHO malaria team, but in the end the herb was found to be common in America, and research got going in the west.
Worked like a charm. Pleasant to take, no nasty side-effects, quick clinical response even for patients with multiple-drug-resistant malaria, and (so far) no resistance. Scenes of neat packets of pills of artemesin coming off the production lines and being given to grateful Thai peasants.
So what's the catch? They're still extracting the stuff from the plant, and the world can't grow enough of it to supply the squillions of doses needed worldwide.
Enter some extremely smart chemists, who manage to synthesise an analogue that can be manufactured on a production line. After some deep trouble getting a molecule that is both water-soluble and parasiticidal, they appear to have succeeded. Clinical trials started in January. Promising, but still early days.
The programme also reported that there have been new breakthroughs in the quest for a vaccine, and that maybe in another ten years they'll have one (where have I heard that before?). But in the meantime, artemisia and its derivatives should buy the time needed by offering a useful treatment to infectid individuals.
So, isn't that just how traditional herbal medicine should be used? Find out what actually does work (out of hundreds of candidates), find out what the active principle is, make a purified and standardised preparation, and if possible make a synthetic version to save having to turn the entire arable resources of the planet over to growing the stuff.
Or of course you could just go to your TCM practitioner and take pot luck that the herb he chooses happens to be the right one....
Rolfe.
