CYP3A4, genetics and scopoletin. In a pionneering study in 2010, the University of Louvain had studied the anti-inflammatory effect and modulation of cytochrome P450 activities by Artemisia annua tea infusions in human intestinal Caco-2 cells Melillo de Magalhães, Yves-Jacques Schneider. Anti-inflammatory effect and modulation of cytochrome P450 activities by Artemisia annua tea infusions in human intestinal Caco-2 cell Food Chemistry 134(2):864-71 · September 2012 These assays were done on aqueous infusionsof Artemisia annua...

Saponins are a class of chemical compounds found in particular abundance in various plant species. More specifically, they are amphipathic glycosides grouped phenomenologically by the soap-like foaming they produce when shaken in aqueous solutions, and structurally by having one or more hydrophilic glycoside moieties combined with a lipophilic triterpene derivative. Most research work on Artemisia annua has ignored saponins and polysaccharides because these are only soluble in water and in the search of the golden fleece or the exceptional...

People living in the poorest countries are the most afflicted to malaria and this may be related to nutrition. Their basic staple is rich in carbohydrates (starch). The main source of energy is thus glucose, but not lipids and ketone bodies. Glucose is food for Plasmodium which needs 60 times more of this fuel than the healthy erythrocyte. Fatty, ketogenic diet will provide less nutrients to the parasite although this has not been explored in depth. Breastfeeding seems to contribute to the immunity of newborns during 6 months and breast...

lutgenp Blood of Plasmodium falciparum-infected persons contains large quantities of uric acid precipitates. Uric acid precipitates are highly inflammatory molecules that are considered a danger signal for innate immunity and are the causative agent of gout. Uric acid may also be beneficial: it has an extraordinary ability to scavenge radicals in the plasma and extracellular environment protecting cells from external oxidative stress. Entry of uric acid into the cells has an opposite pro-oxidant effect. Sautin YY, Johnson RJ, Uric acid:...

by lutgenp After some important research work had been done some 30 years ago on amino acids, the impact these molecules might have on a vast array of diseases has been neglected. But there is increasing evidence that the amino acid proline plays an important role in the virulence mechanism of human and mammalian pathogens. Different aminoacids have different roles in malaria. Arginine was a deadly weapon against malaria gametocytes. It was found that the Plasmodium parasite tries to extrude as much as possible of arginine from the...