Thai cucumber enters battle against AIDS

Thai cucumber enters battle against AIDS

BANGKOK (AFP): A species of Thai cucumber could help combat
AIDS according to local researchers, amid growing confusion over
mooted herbal remedies here for the disease, reports said
yesterday.

Researchers at Bangkok's Mahidol University believe that a
protein extract from the seeds of the mara khi nok cucumber could
suppress an enzyme vital for the replication of the HIV virus
that leads to AIDS.

But they stress it could take more than 10 years before the
extract could be developed into a usable drug, the Nation daily
reported.

Doctor Weena Jiratchariyakul at Mahidol's faculty of pharmacy
was quoted as saying the protein inhibits the enzyme reverse
transcriptase, and works in the same way as the widely produced
AIDS drugs, AZT.

However, she said that while test-tube trials had been made,
it was too soon to say whether the protein in the vegetable would
work on humans. It was also similar to research already done in
the United States.

Yet some AIDS patients in northern Thailand use anal
suppositories of the cucumber seeds crushed and mixed with water
to treat their symptoms, Professor Arnwatra Limsuwan of the
faculty of medicine noted.

The cucumber claim is the latest in a spate of mooted Thai
herbal remedies or suppressants of the human immunodefiency virus
(HIV) which can develop into the acquired immune deficiency
syndrome (AIDS).

Earlier this week, the Thai minister of university affairs
Decha Sukharom hailed researchers at Bangkok's Chulabhorn
Institute for having discovered a cure for AIDS that would be
patented.

The health ministry and hospitals were consequently swamped
with calls from sufferers desperate to find out about the new
herbal remedy, the Bangkok Post reported.