Plant to be studied as hepatitis cure

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 35

Plant to be studied as hepatitis cure

PA Wellington A native Indian plant which researchers believe could clear hepatitis B carriers of the virus may be brought into New Zealand for further study. Whakatane Hospital’s hepatitis B research unit director, Mr Sandy Milne, said an Indian doctor had done preliminary studies on the plant, phyllanthus amarus, and had invited New Zealand to do further work on it. The Indian study results, reported in the “Lancet,” were encouraging — 59 per cent of those treated with extracts from the plant stopped being carriers, compared with just 4 per cent of those given a placebo. “We are not quite sure of the implications of this,' but it is a fairly big step forward if there is anything in it,” Mr Milne said.

New Zealand has an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 hepatitis B carriers and

these people are at risk of developing chronic liver diseases like cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Mr Milne said while the plant seemed to get rid of the virus particles in the blood, researchers were not sure if it lowered the risk of liver disease. “And it is the liver we’re concerned about, not the blood.” Present treatment for hepatitis B carriers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars using expensive drugs which had side-ef-fects, he said. New Zealand was in a good position to take part in a study because it had the skills, organisational structure and a high number of carriers.

Such a study would first need to pass an ethical review with informed consent of patients and they had to be sure the plant was not toxic.

The first step was to try to get the plant seeds into New Zealand and start

growing them, he said.

“But only as long as it is safe. We do not want another gorse in New Zealand.”

Mr Milne said he was now discussing this with MAF and Auckland University’s botany department. Discussion and research could follow, and if it was decided that the study was not such a good idea, the plants could be destroyed. But it was no use taking months to discuss the issue and then deciding to grow the plant. “We’ve got to get them growing now because that is the slow part.” Mr Milne said the plant grew as a weed in the Solomon Islands and also grew freely in India. Researchers would also like to raise money so the doctor behind the plant’s discovery could come to New Zealand.