Scientist Says W. African Plant May Be Ebola Cure
8/4/99
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Title: Scientist Says W. African Plant May Be Ebola Cure
Source: Reuters Limited
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 4, 1999
ST. LOUIS (Reuters)-- Compounds found in a plant used by West African
faith healers stopped the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in lab
tests and may be effective against the flu, a scientist told a botany
conference Tuesday.
The Garcinia kola plant, whose seeds are often included in welcoming
food baskets in Africa where it grows wild, contains compounds with
two flavonoid molecules fused together that scientists believe halted
the spread of Ebola in tests.
``This is a very exciting discovery. The same forest that yields the
dreaded Ebola virus could be a source of the cure,'' Maurice Iwu,
founder of the London-based Bioresources Development and Conservation
Program, told the International Botanical Congress.
Flavonoids, which can be found in tea and in wine, are known to
neutralize harmful chemicals that damage cells and can lead to
illnesses such as heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
Iwu, who was born to a family of healers in Nigeria and trained in
pharmacology, was led to the plant by traditional healers who said it
had been eaten for thousands of years. Iwu said the compounds were
nontoxic in animal tests.
The plant's flavonoid compounds that were believed to offer the
healing powers could form the basis for drugs in a few years, he
said. Tests on some compounds from the plant were also effective
against some strains of the common flu virus.
One of the deadliest viruses known, Ebola kills by causing high
fevers and severe bleeding. A 1995 outbreak in Zaire, now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, killed 81 percent of its 315
victims. It was first documented in 1976 in Zaire, and named for a
river there, and there have been outbreaks in Sudan, Gabon and the
Ivory Coast.