25/03/2018
Don't miss the "Popular Talk" by Prof. S. Sotheeswaran, (Visiting Senior Professor, College of Chemical Sciences, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, and Emeritus Professor, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji)
Title: "Anti-diabetic Medications from Tropical Plants."
Abstract: Diabetes results from a lack or shortage of insulin, a hormone necessary to metabolise carbohydrates. Consequently, sugar accumulates in the blood. Diabetes cannot be cured but can be controlled. Today, there are medications to induce the pancreas to produce more insulin. If the pancreas does not respond to this inducement, the patient can be given insulin injection. Patients are also advised to adopt a diet low in carbohydrates.
Indigenous physicians in India, Fiji and Sri Lanka have used herbal treatments for diabetes for centuries. It is interesting that most of these treatments are foodstuffs that are taken by everyone. Animal trials have proved that herbal medication is indeed effective against diabetes. Some of the traditional herbal remedies for diabetes, their common and/or local names and their Botanical names (in parenthesis) are :
(1) Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon/Pavatkai – (Momordica charantia),
(2) Fenugreek/Venthayam ( Trigonella foenum-graecum) ,
(3) Kurincha (Gymnema species),
(4) Cinnamon/Karuva (Cinnamomum species),
(5) Tebu (Costus speciosus), and
(6) Kothala Himbutu (Salacia reticulata).
Of these, plants 1, 2 and 4 are incorporated in a herbal anti-diabetic pharmaceutical called Glucobetic. This lecture discuses some herbal anti-diabetic remedies, and questions the dosages and effectiveness (or otherwise) of these plant medications in Glucobetic. Even though there are no clinical trial data published for herbal anti-diabetic medications, preliminary clinical trial data on the use of cinnamon bark in reducing the blood sugar levels of diabetic patients are currently available and will be presented at this lecture.
Conference website: www.conf.jfn.ac.lk/virc/
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