Hey, was trudging through pubmed articles the other day. Came across some interesting stuff. Specifically, studies of herbs with strong anti-babesial properties.
Evaluation of the Inhibitory Activities of the Extracts of Indonesian Traditional Medicinal Plants against Plasmodium falciparum and Babesia gibsoni Summary(and Full PDF)
..."The extracts of Achillea millefolium, Baeckea frutenscens, Brucea javanica, Curcuma xanthorrhiza, Strychnos lucida and Swietenia macrophylla showed both strong antibabesial and antimalarial activities. "...
If you read the actual pdf, you can get the real numbers on how potent these are. They look extremely promising IMO. Especially since they juse used water extracts. I've been taking curcuma xanthorrhiza (java turmeric) for a bit now on and off, it seems to be strong medicine. It is anti-babesial, anti-malarial, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and also apparently effective against Bio-Films! I want to try the brucea javanica next. I've found the extract of it (Java Brucea Fruit) for sale on the net pretty cheap.
Anyway, am I the only one who is willing to read the #'s and try these things, or does anybody else find them interesting too? Just curious... I don't even know if I have babesia, I tested negative. Would be interested to hear of someone who has babesia and is willing to spend $20 or something to try one of these. I feel perhaps these and some other herbs are being overlooked.
They are talking about one of the chemicals in that plant, apparently it has an IC50 (50% of the parasite is inhibited at this concentration) of 4-12NANOGRAMS/mL. That is potent!
Anyway just somebody please let me know what you think.
Posted by catalysT (Member # 10786) on :
Theres a bunch more studies like these if anybody's interested too!
Also thought I should mention that I haven't studied the brucea javanica as much as the java turmeric, so I don't know enough about it's toxicity/safety/dosage, but it does at least have some history of traditional medical use.. So yeah, not suggesting people go out and buy any of these things willy-nilly, just opening it up for further discussion.
Posted by Vermont_Lymie (Member # 9780) on :
Thanks for the interesting information! The literature on Curcuma xanthorrhiza looks pretty useful, and extensive.
I had babesia and may well still have it, and am willing to give Curcuma xanthorrhiza a try based on the literature, and keep you posted. Where do you purchase it? Is it the same species as regular turmeric?
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
I read this article a year or two ago I think. I remember that one of the plants listed was Noni. I do think I have read that Dr K includes that on his list of possible Babesia herbs.
Several people have tried the turmeric (curcumin) in the past I think -- it is a very good anti-inflammatory especially for joint issues. Haven't heard of any Babs success stories though.
Achillea is commonly known as yarrow. I used to add this to hubby's G.I. herbal formula. Don't think it did anything for Babs, but was using a liquid extract and probably at too small of a dose top do much.
Bea Seibert
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Have you tried the Cryptolepsis that Buhner recommends?
Hubby would say that it definitely did something. Don't think it will work on a heavy infection though. Hubby took it with quinine and clindamycin and ended up doing cloroquin and primaquine as well.
Actually thought we had beat Babs, but trial of Alinia and Artemesinin proved that there is still a subclinical infection.