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Don't hold the guacamole! Healing chemicals
in plants studiedBy Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinScientific research presented yesterday at the 2000 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies indicates that avocados may contain chemicals that reduce liver damage in laboratory rats and could prove an effective treatment for viral hepatitis in humans.
While clinical studies on humans have yet to be conducted, researcher Hirokazu Kawagishi, an applied chemical biology professor at Shizuoka University in Japan, said he hasn't come across any reports of avocados being detrimental to anyone's health. The fruit has a high fat content, but most of it is the healthy mono-unsaturated variety.
"It's not bad for your body," he said.
Other research findings discussed at the six-day conference include the potential benefits of Hawaiian noni plant leaves as a treatment for tuberculosis and the benefits of grape-seed extract as an anti-oxidant. The conference, held in Honolulu, concluded yesterday.
Kawagishi said his team discovered three new compounds in avocados which seem to improve liver health. The studies were conducted by testing 22 fruits on rats with chemically-induced liver damage. Avocados showed the most potent activity, but Kawagishi said his team is also trying to isolate compounds in other fruits that may have beneficial properties: watermelon, papaya, lychee, kiwi, Japanese plum, grapefruit, fig and cherry.
Jonel Saludes, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of San Agustin in the Philippines is looking into a possible treatment for tuberculosis using leaves of the Hawaiian noni plant, which grows commonly along Hawaii's coastlines.
All parts of the noni plant -- including its green foul-smelling berries -- have been used for centuries as treatments for heart disease, diabetes and cancer, Saludes said. Native Hawaiians used a concoction called aumiki awa that included the fruit as tuberculosis medicine, but the preparation method has been lost.
Saludes said his is the first scientific study that validates the plant as a possible tuberculosis treatment. He has yet to test his compounds made of noni leaf extracts on animals or humans, but said in laboratory tests one concentration of noni leaf extracts can kill up to 95 percent of the tuberculosis bacterium, which is "in the same range as a currently used drug."
Rifampicin, a commonly used drug to treat tuberculosis has a 97 percent rate of inhibition of the tuberculosis pathogens. Saludes said his extract, which has an 89 percent rate of inhibition, has also proved effective with virulent and drug-resistant strains of the disease. In the future, a drug made with noni leaves "might have the potential as a therapeutic agent against tuberculosis," he said.
The pungent noni juice is a popular, but expensive, nutritional supplement. He doesn't have a position on noni juice's value, which is derived from the fruit. "What I worked on was the leaf."
Other researchers from Creighton University in Nebraska and the Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing in New York City reaffirmed the antioxidant power of grape-seed extract, which provides more protection against oxidative damage than vitamins C, E or beta-carotene.