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.