Malunggay (Moringa Oleifera) For Health
Diabetes and cardiovascular disorders are among the top ten reasons for health problem in our nation. The treatment of these illness are expensive and in some cases difficult at later stage. Additionally, a high portion of Filipinos can not afford these treatments.
One way to address this issue is by harnessing regional resources in establishing new drugs. This is in line with the objective of the Drug Discovery Development Program of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development to mine new drugs from natural substances which can be established approximately pre-clinical phase for typical contagious illness and way of life conditions. In our lab, we are continually tapping in your area grown plants for prospective drug source to prevent, manage, and treatment various disorders that pester our people.
Moringa oleifera, locally known as malunggay, has been dubbed a miracle plant because of its numerous dietary, restorative, and prophylactic residential or commercial properties. Amongst its medical uses is as treatment for swelling such as in rheumatoid arthritis. Swelling is one system by which our body reacts to tissue injury. It is complicated path in the body. In fact, it has been linked to other diseases such as cancer, diabetes, metabolic conditions, Alzhiemer's illness, and cardiovascular conditions. Hence, preventing inflammation might potentially relieve symptoms and even cure these illness.
In our lab, we evaluate the capacity of plant extracts-- in this case, malunggay leaves-- by giving it orally to mice whose paws have actually been injected with an inflammatory representative. The volume of the paws are measured, using an instrument called a plethysmometer, and recorded before and after injection of the inflammatory agent to identify whether administered extract works in avoiding or minimizing swelling.
Our deal with malunggay yielded an active compound that lowers swelling in carrageenan-induced paw oedema test in mice, a technique sed to evaluate the effectively of a sample against swelling. This substance can be become a real drug or work as a biomarker in standardizing malunggay herbal products.
We encountered many obstacles in the implementation of this task, primary of which was the schedule of mice for usage in the experimentation. The other bores work of isolation. When separating active substances from natural sources such as plants, it is a widely known truth that yield is really low. Therefore, the procedure of separation needs to be repeated numerous times in order to come up with adequate compound for additional testing.
The acquisition of an HPLC system, in the Moringa program has actually been really valuable in this respect. The NMR facility in the Institute of Chemistry has likewise been important in identifying the structure and identity of the active substance. With cautious preparation and adherence to set schedules, the administrative obstacles that contribute to the delay of the task, such as procurement of materials, reagents, and devices has actually been minimized.
The active substance identified from this study still has to be tested for safety and to undergo formulation research studies prior to it can be turned into an actual drug that can be utilized versus inflammation. This usually takes about five years. In the meantime, it can be utilized to establish a standardized product based on malunggay such as organic supplement or organic drug. This might be recognized in 2 to 3 years' time. It is anticipated that results from this study will assist enhance the health condition of the Filipino people and ultimately, ease poverty.
