Friday, October 14, 2011

NEEM – The Treasured Herb

At an international symposium held at New Delhi in January 1994, the author was the chairman of a session, in which a German Scientist from the Max-Plank Institute at Martinsried described the powerful effects of neem in preventing the growth of insects. Today, Azadirachta indica, a compound obtained from the seeds of neem tree is the most powerful anti insect substance yet to be discovered. It has been shown by scientists to be effective against at least 150 species of insects. The compound has been patented by W.R. Grace Company of USA which has produced the material known as Margosan O and a multi dollar global market is building up around neem.

Neem plantations are being developed in different parts of the world. Azadirachta indiaca acts as an insect antifeedent. When sprayed on crops, insects do not come and destroy these plants. It also prevents growth of parasites inside insect vectors if the insect takes a bite of a plant protected by neem. The development of this unique substance, from a tree grown indigenously in India for generations, for the world market by a foreign firm had caused considerable controversy. Several Indian scientists and politicians feel that this country has been deprived of the world market of an Indian plant product.

while listening to Professor Rembold giving his presentation, the author remembered his childhood annual ritual where winter clothes were packed into trunks with neem leaves for storage during the long summer months.

Many readers would also remember these leaves being used for storage of grain in large metal containers. It is a pity that this folklore wisdom was not explored further by Indian scientists and that the work needed to develop this information known to us through centuries into a marketable commodity was carried outside India. While we may have lost neem as an insect repellent yet, we still have much more information about other attributes of neem which should now be explored. Neem has long been considered as a powerful antiseptic and may turn out to have compounds which may be of use in viral diseases.
Traditionally, the first time a person took a bath after an attack of chicken pox was with water in which neem leaves had been immersed. Water in which neem leaves have been placed also relieves the itching and scratching caused by skin diseases.

People should continue to use the neem leaf for different purposes while Indian scientists attempts to identify and patent compounds which are responsible for these beneficial effects. The twig of the neem tree has been used in many parts of India as a combined tooth brush and tooth paste to keep one’s teeth healthy and spotless. This property of neem also needs to be studied. The oil from the seed of the neem tree has also demonstrated anti fertility activity when delivered into the uterus and Indian scientist at the National Institute of Immunology led by Professor Talwar were carrying out their first trials on human subjects. It is very much possible that an anti fertility drug could emerge from this pioneering work.

Ayurvedic medicine and folklore medicine give us insight into other possible therapeutic uses of neem. The use of neem for skin infections comes out loud and clear, not only soothing itching but also for curing boils and eruptions and for use in leprosy and leucoderma. An ayurvedic medicine a preparation made of five parts of the neem tree has been used for leprosy – the bark, leaf, root, flower and seed. The bark of the neem tree has also been used for treatment of fevers caused by malaria, which again is becoming a threat in India. Supporting the belief is the observation made by a friend of the author, who has spent many years in the malaria prone areas in Assam.

That an extract of the bark of the neem tree taken daily with two other plants prevented malaria in all who took this concoction even when people all around were coming down with it. The oil of the seed has been found to be active against worms and fungi and is commonly used for this purpose. Water in which neem leaves have been placed is reported to be effective in causing hair to grow. Finally, neem leaves are very rich in vitamin. A and have been found to be a cheap way of counteracting night blindness caused by the deficiency of vitamin A. It appears, therefore, that this tree has much more to offer to us and to the world than what has already been discovered.

Fortunately India abounds with neem trees, which were carefully planted by the British in long avenues throughout the country, thus enabling Indian Scientists to take up this challenge of developing other medicine from neem.

Male Oral Contraceptive

Chinese scientists came very close to discovering and giving to the world an oral contraceptive for men from the cotton seed plant. Over 75,000 Chinese men were given this substance, known as gossypol and it was found to be effective. However the study showed that there were two effects associated with this substance which prevented it from becoming the world’s first mal oral contraceptive. In a certain number of men there was a decrease in the potassium content in the blood, while in 25 per cent of men it induced an irreversible effect. The men could not father a child even though there was no decrease in libido.

Researches are continuing both in China and USA to study other substances from the cotton seed plant similar to gossypol which may not cause the undesirable side effects. But the excitement and hopes raised by the discovery of gossypol have abated. The story of the facts that led to the discovery of gossypol needs to be told.

No children were born in the village of Wang in the province of Nanching in China in the 1940s causing panic in village. The village elders blamed the young women of Wang for this and sent their young men to neighbouring village to bring wives. There was still no joyous sound of crying babies. The men were then sent to village further off and brought back as wives young widows with children. They faithfully did this but still, for full ten years no babies were born.

A visiting government chronicler passing through Wang noted this fact and also in his notes, mentioned that the villagers were so poor that they could not even refine the cotton seed oil they were using for cooking. In the 1950s babies started appearing in Wang and the villagers thought that the curse on the villages has passed away. Another chronicler passing through at this time noted that the standard of life in Wang had improved and that the villagers were now using soyabean oil for cocking instead of cotton seed oil.

A research worker noticed this apparent relationship between the use of unrefined cotton oil and the absence of babies and concluded in a paper published in 1957 that “the fact that when they stopped eating cotton seed oil the birth control effect automatically disappears shows that it is the most economical, convenient and natural method for controlling births. “ Nothing much happened and this remarkable observation went unnoticed.

In 1970, Professor Qian, the Head of the Department of Pharmacology at Nanching, administered cotton seed oil to patients of bronchitis. Perhaps he had remembered the earlier observation about Wang. In addition to asking for different tests to be carried out before and after giving cotton seed oil, he also asked for the sperm count. The cotton seed oil was given to five men and its was found that four of these men had very low counts of sperms while the fifth had no living sperms at all. None of these five men would have been able to father a child. Gossypol acts by reducing the number of sperms. The first oral male contraceptive had been discovered.

Chinese scientists have not given up and are now working on the male contraceptive effect of a plant called Tripteryium wilfordii. Interestingly this work also began because patients with bronchitis were given this plant and the men come back with low sperm counts. The World Health Organization is participating in the studies of this plant and it is hoped that this may be more successful than gossypol.

In India investigators observed that the stalks of Piper betle induce an anti fertility effect in male rats.

Cure For Fatigue - Fatigue Treatment

Fatigue, tiredness without cause, unwillingness to do things are some of the conditions seen in the populace, particularly in the affluent urban sector. The doctor, not finding any reason for it, feel it is psychological, while the affected persons themselves strongly resent the suggestion. Tonics are no help to overcome the complain.

A chance observation made by researchers in Agasthya hills of Kerala may provide us with a simple remedy from plants to prevent or treat fatigue. The Kani tribes in these hills walk long distances every day and are able to do this without getting unduly tired because they take the unripe fruit known locally as Arogyappacha. The fruit is acrid in taste but gives instant stamina when taken.

Some of the ethnobotanical research workers collecting plants in Agasthya hills themselves took the fruit when they got tired of climbing the hills. It has been reported that they felt much more energetic after consuming it. The credit for reporting this goes to the trekking team of the scientists of the All India Coordinated Researched Project on Ethnobiology of the Post Graduate Research Centre in Ayurveda at Thiruvananthapuram.

The tree has been identified as Trichphus zeylanicus. A thorough search of the available literature on medicinal plants of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines and Burma has been carried out. This plant is not mentioned in any of the books. We are therefore at the beginning of a long road to determine whether the unripe fruit of Trichphus zeylanicus possesses an anti-fatigue effect or not.

It is not necessary to go back to the laboratory and test this fruit on experimental animals. A controlled trial can be carried out on normal people who could, for example, be asked to climb a hill. After a certain time, as they start becoming tired, they would themselves be asked to indicate on a measured scale how tired they feel at that moment. Half the people could be given Trichphus zeylanicus while the other half would be give unripe fruit of another plant. The walkers should not know what they are taking.

The measurement of tiredness in both groups after some more climbing should indicate whether the fruit of Trichphus zeylanicus had a beneficial effect or not. If indeed, the fruit does demonstrate an anti-fatigue effect it could be then worth following up in detail and isolating the active substance. It is hoped that some of our younger scientist would take up a problem of this type which is interesting, innovative and relevant.

It has also been claimed that the fruit also counteracts the feeling of hunger. This also remains to be investigated further. Those who carry out research on medicines regularly receive claims for plants and alternative medicines from plants supposed to cure different disease. All such claims cannot be followed up.

Traditional Plants for Lactating Mothers

One of the problems faced by some mothers while nursing their babies is the lack of enough milk. There is no reason why a healthy mother who eats nutritional food and is not under stress of tension should have this problem. However it does happen and there are no allopathic medicines which can be administered to increase milk secretion. In alternative medicine, however, there are several plant substances which are reportedly being used to increase production of milk. In folklore as well as grandmother’s medicines many plants are being used to solve this problem. Several of this have, in fact been used in veterinary medicine.

It would be interesting to hav a look at these plants. Some enterprising researcher may, after carrying our toxicity tests in animals, conduct clinical trials to see if any of these increase milk secretion in mother with lactating problem. Many of the plants described below have been mentioned in the Atharva Veda written thousands of years ago. Asparagus racemosus or satavari is one of these plants. The roots of this plant increased milk Secretion when administered to rats. Following these studies published in the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology in 1968, another study was carried out in buffaloes. Again it was seen that feeding fresh roots of satavari significantly increased the milk yield in these animals.

Laptadenia reticulate or Dodi and Breynia ortens are tow plants administered together to increase mil secretion in women. The results of the preliminary study were published in the Indian Practitioner in 1979, The result indicated that this is preparation caused a significant increase in the weight of children whose mothers were given this preparation – particularly while the children were 6 to 9 months old.

In a review on this subject published in 1983, the author stated that the findings were interesting but needed to be confirmed in a comparatively controlled clinical trial. This has not yet been done. There are however several papers which have demonstrated the effect of Laptadenia reticulate alone on milk secretion in experimental animals. It has been suggested that the plants contain stignasterol which is responsible for this effect. Three others plants have been investigated for this activity by feeding animals with these and studying the milk secretion. These plants are abroma augusta or olat kombal, Cominum cyminum and Nigella sativa known as kaloji. All these induced, to some degree, an increase in milk output.

Finally there is a preparation in the Indian market which is a mixture of several plants and which is used by practitioners of the traditional systems of medicine to increase milk secretion. Some of these plants are Abrus precatorius, Asparagus racemosus, Laptadenia reticulate, Tinospora cordifolia and Zingiber officinale. Several studies carried out on experimental animals – rats, goats, buffeloes and cows – suggest an increase milk production. Studies have not yet been carried out in humans. It appears therefore that there is a wealth of traditional, folklore and experimental evidence which needs to be investigated further if our modern system of medicine would like to include one or more of these plants in our armamentarium.

Plants Extracts as Aphrodisiacs

The exotic red petals of Hibiscus rosasinensis, commonly known as shoeflower or Jaba, could provide the first herbal contraceptive to be developed in India.

A 2000 year old text Yogaratnakar mentions the plant with supporting evidence of its ethnobotanical use as a contraceptive. Report of laboratory experiments have been found. Yoggaratnakar states that, “The lady who takes the paste of the Jabakusum in rice water mixed with molasses for three days, does not beome pregnant.”

Ethnobotanical evidence come from recorded observations, testifying that the petals of this plant are used as contraceptive in at least seven countries – India, Indonesia, Papua new guinea, Fiji Samoa, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, Ethnopharmacological evidence regarding the use of this plant has also emerged.

Since 1960, a series of papers on the anti fertility effect of Hibiscus rosasinensis in animals have been published from laboratories at Varanasi, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Chandigarh and other centres. Research on the plant was carried out between 1977 and 1981 as part of a Task Force Activity of the Indian Council of Medical Research. Uncontrolled clinical trials at Varanasi by Professor Tiwari and her Colleagues have demonstrated that the plant induced an antifertility effect. Jaba need to be investigated thoroughly and speedily. What is needed is concerted efforts rather than scientists pursuing the research individually.

Also, to develop Hibiscus rosasinensis into a drug, a multi-disciplinary effort is needed along with pooling of scientific resources, adequate financial and moral support. The late professor, K.N. Udupa of the Varanasi Institute of Medical Sciences, should be given credit for insisting on carrying out research on the plant. He believed that the red petals picked between October and December were the most effective.

Indian scientists have also demonstrated that the seeds of the plant Butea monosperma also exerts an antiovulatory effect in experimental animals.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Herbs That Boost Your Performance



The possible use of our old wisdom about maintaining good health as described in the Ayurveda and taking herbs not as medicines but as Rasayana tonics to improve one’s physical capacities was discussed at the Indian Sports Congress, Organised efficiently by prayaas, at the India International Centre in November, 1994. The theme of the congress was “Sports in India – strategies for the 21st Century.” The subject The subject first come up in the session on “ Promotion of sports in Tribal Area’ which stated that our athletes could certainly, benefits from a;; the knowledge and information we have, based on our ancient systems of medicine.

It is not that we should use plants to improve performance but they should be used to promote health and thus enable our athletes to function in the best possible health. As we all know there are plants like Ocimum sanctum (tulsi), Asparagus recemousus (satavari) and Withania somnifera (ashwagandha) which are know to improve health. It our athletes could be given some of these non-addicting simple herbal remedies, it is possible that our results at international athletes meets would improve.

The subject come up again in the session on the final day where the theme was “Sports Sciences”. Specialists in Sports Medicine identified some of the physiological functions which are involved when our sportsmen participate in competitive games. A person who has an efficient oxygen transport system will be able to supply more oxygen to the muscles than one whose mechanisms are not so efficient.

Scientists are aware that this system can be improved but surprisingly no effort has been made to see whether tulsi or satavari could improve these systems. Recently a nut has been discovered in Kerala which is used by the Kani tribes to help in walking and climbing long distances without getting tired. The effect of this nut could be scientifically studied.

There are other types of physiological activities which could be improved by plants, yoga and medication. This sort of improvement would not be against the rules as these are only improving one’s physiological functions. The cardiac output could be improved. It is also possible that some or our plants could effect the enzymes involved in transportation of oxygen in the blood. What is clear is that a whole area of alternative medicine and sports remains unexplored. It is very interesting that this subject has been brought to our attention – not by physiologists or medical persons but by sports specialists. This investigation should be carried out keeping in mind the rules governing the use of medicines for sports person.

Increasing physiological performances by yoga or meditation or by use of our Rasayana herbs can in no way be considered as drug abuse or as cheating. The International Olympic Commission rightly states that drugs or medicines taken to gain an unfair advantage in sports are subject to doping control regulations. Time and again we read about participants being disqualified as a result of urine tests. There are five categories of substances which are banned. These are 1) Stimulants; 2) Narcotic analgesis; 3) Anabolic steroids; 4) Diuretics and 5) Peptide hormones and their analogues. There are sensitive test to pick up these substance from the urine.

The use of good wholesome food, the practice of meditation to improve concentration, the practice to yoga to condition one’s mind and body and the use of herbs to promotes one’s health are not considered as doping.

As a first step, specialists and Ayurvedic and Unani and other systems of medicine need to list those plants which are reported, in these systems, to have an effect on oxygen transport mechanisms, pulmonary capacity, heart pumping capacity, cardiac output, total blood volume and other functions relating to sports activities.

The work reported on these plants should be critically looked at to determine which substances could be crucial in improving some of these functions. In addition to the three plants mentioned earlier in this article, awareness must be spread of other plants such as Boerhaavia diffusa (punarnava), Curcuma longa (haldi), Azadirachta indica (neem) and ginger. It is possible that the use of some of these herbs, commonly found throughout India, could improve the physical conditioning of our athletes thus, enabling them to perform better.

Several other extremely interesting sessions were held during the congress. One must appreciate the initiative taken in bringing together people from different spheres of life, who are all interested in sports and who were willing to give up their time on Saturday and Sunday, to participate in these very important discussions relevant to our country’s performance at international sporting meets.

Fruits That Treat Your Stomach

There are several fruits, many of them easily available, which have healing properties. These could be used more often for treatment of common conditions. Banana has a beneficial effect on constipation. The pectin in the fruit enables it to absorb water and increase the intestinal bulk which then acts as a laxative at the level of the colon. Two ripe bananas taken in the morning should be enough for mild constipation. The fruit also has been shown to have an anti-acidity effect-perhaps by preventing the effect of a substance called 5-hydroxytryptamine.

So if somebody gets heartburn after a hearty but, perhaps, unwise meal and there is no medicine available at home, then bananas could decrease these symptoms. Another fruit which has an effect on constipation is the papaya. The ripe papaya, if taken regularly, not only cures but also prevents constipation. This is particularly beneficial for people with piles or with hernia as the straining associated with constipation would be avoided.

Lime commonly known as nimbu, is very rich source of vitamin C. It was by giving two lemons a day to sailors in British naval vessel that John Lind discovered that the deficiency disease of scurvy could be completely cured by

vitamin C. Lemon juice can be taken by those suffering from a common cold for which physicians often prescribe vitamin C. The usual way to get the maximum effect of the fruit is to take a little juice mixed with honey in a glass of warm water. This is also useful when one has, associated with the cold, a bad throat.

The use of the Argle marmelos (bael) fruit, both as a laxative and for treating dysentery, has already been mentioned. A drink prepared from the pulp of the ripe fruit is an excellent laxative. The unripe fruit is used in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. The fruit commonly known as jamun – Eugenia jambolana is although more studies need to be carried out to scientifically demonstrate this effect. People with a tendency towards diabetes could take this fruit whenever available. The powder is also available for use throughtout the year.

A drink prepared from the unripe mango is used for prevention of heat exhaustion in several parts of India. Known as ‘panha’ in Maharastra this drink prepared by cooking the unripe mango and then mixing is with sugar and water with dash of caramon and saffron. A variation of this is also taken in Bengal, Bihar and UP.

In general, fruit contains large quantities of vitamins and should be taken as much as possible. Some fruit like guava contain large amounts of vitamins C while other like orange contain vitamin A,B and C. Apple contain vitamins A while the Indian gooseberry, grapes, etc contain vitamin C the richest source being the Indian gooseberry known as amla.

Other fruits which are reputed to be useful for treating diseases include the pomegranate (anar), grape fruit (chakotra), grapes and the apricot (khubani). Besides their use in specific conditions, a daily intake of some fruit is recommended.

Chitika