Expert to see if plant eases AIDS symptoms
Expert to see if plant eases AIDS symptoms

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By Jeff Raymond

Published: October 19, 2007

A University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center researcher is testing an herbal medicine in South Africa to determine whether it helps alleviate symptoms associated with AIDS.

The research marks the first time Western scientists have been allowed to test a traditional herbal medicine in South Africa to determine its safety and effectiveness against AIDS, according to a news release from the health sciences center.

Researcher Kevin Rudeen is dean of the College of Allied Health. With him is an international team funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The group will study the Sutherlandia frutescens plant, a flowering shrub of the pea family that is native to South Africa. Local healers, who provide primary care for most of the nation's rural residents, use the plant in powder form to treat AIDS symptoms such as nausea and lack of appetite. Despite claims of its health benefits, the plant never has been tested scientifically. Locals call it "insisa” — one that dispels darkness.

"This plant is commonly used by traditional healers in South Africa ... in many of their potions and concoctions,” said Rudeen, who will design and implement the upcoming trial.

HIV-positive patients often loss weight and their appetites. "In the traditional healers in South Africa, this plant has been used for what they call a ‘thinning disease,'” Rudeen explained. Researchers hope to determine whether the plant alleviates weight loss, stimulates appetites and improves patients' quality of life.

At least one international organization argues South Africa has been the nation hit hardest by the AIDS epidemic. Because of the cost and limited availability of antiviral medicines, South African patients' immune systems must drop below a certain threshold in cell counts before the government provides treatment. While waiting for therapy, patients need relief.

"Indigenous medicines are widely used throughout Africa despite a lack of evidence for their safety or efficacy. Researchers hope to show whether these herbal remedies are effective enough to develop into treatments. Such medicines would aid patients in poorer regions of the world where governments and residents cannot afford treatment or where conventional medicines have limited availability,” according to the release.

Who will do the research?

Rudeen, who worked at the University of Missouri before becoming the allied health dean in Oklahoma City eight months ago, said his former university had two decades of contacts and exchanges with South African campuses.

On Rudeen's team are:

•Scientists from the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa.

•Physicians from a hospital in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

•Physicians from the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Rudeen said all patient contact would involve South African doctors.

Traditional healers have embraced the research, Rudeen said. Their enthusiasm is important because the research team is the only one Rudeen is aware of that is examining South African herbal medicine.

What will the study involve?

After a pilot study earlier showed the plant was safe for use, researchers moved forward in trying to determine its effectiveness. The clinical trial, which the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the South African equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last month, begins in a few weeks with participant recruitment.

William Folk is a University of Missouri professor of biochemistry who is working with Rudeen on the Sutherlandia research. Folk said the clinical trial will be the first to use randomized assignment of patients to groups that will receive either a placebo or the plant. The trial design is a standard for scientific work.

"As the majority of the (people) of Africa use the traditional medicines for their health care, and there is little prospect of this changing, we believe the procedures put in place by our efforts will facilitate understanding of the safety and efficacy of these important medicines,” he wrote in an e-mail.

The trial will involve approximately 48 people — half of whom are HIV-positive but whose diseases have not progressed to AIDS, and half of whom are not HIV-positive. Those who had AIDS, as measured by CD4 cell counts and other methods, were ineligible to participate. The length of the trial will depend on whether patients respond to the plant.

Rudeen expects those who participate to receive the plant for about three months.