Pharmacognosy Sao Paolo: battlefield between North and South

Article de Marc Vanacker trouvé sur www.malariaworld.org What we learned from participants at the Pharmacognosy conference Aug- 29-31 at Sao Paolo is disturbing. The conference ended in chaos. A professor from Ireland qualified clinical trials made by African researchers and medical doctors as appalling. These large scale, randomized, double blind trials with Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra gave exciting results. They showed the superiority against malaria of the plants over artemisinin combined therapy ACT drugs, without any side effects, any recurrence and complete absence of gametocytemia on day 28 after the treatment (seewww.malariaworld.or « Breaking News from Clinical Trials with Artemisia Plants »). And these plants are also very efficient against Bilharzia, Tuberculosis and Buruli ulcer as trials run in 2016 have shown in RDCongo, with the blessing of the health authorities and full-fledged ethical approvals. At the entire conference Africans were the only speakers who presented large scale double blind, randomized in vivo clinical trials in several African countries against several tropical diseases with Artemisia plants. They are part of an international network of 17 universities in partnership with IFBV-BELHERB and M4L. Most of the other presentations were dealing with analytical work or in vitro trials with plants from tropical countries. Northern laboratories pay visits to tropical countries to learn about the traditional use of plants, return to their universities, fiddle with these plants to find molecules which can be used by Bigpharma in monotherapy. Professors and researchers from European universities still consider their own approach, their cleverness far superior to that of Africans. In a public conference they lecture them like elementary school teachers. With contempt. It is easy to understand that the African breakthroughs with phytotherapy frustrate and exasperate Bigpharma. They will lose their juicy business with tropical diseases.