Chinese Medicinal Herb Could Improve Memory

Professor Paul Carlier, associate professor od chemistry at Virginia Technical College in the USA announced this month that Huperzine A, extracted from the chinese medicinal herb Qian Ceng Ta, could be benefical in helping imrpove the memory of patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Professor Carlier has been working with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and believes that Huperzine A could interact with acetylcholinesterase, a brain enzyme affected in Alzheimer's. A simplified molecule of Huperzine A could be developed cheaply and easily using common commercially available chmicals, Dr Carlier believes.

Huperzine A has not been developed comercially in the West to date because it's natural source is not readily available, and because of difficulties in obtaining intellectual property rights on such a drug.

The compound has not been clinically tested on humans as yet, though it could be used in treating the early stages of the disease. Dr Carlier stressed that any such compound would never be a cure, and that drugs could not restore mental faculties once the disease had progressed beyond a certain point.

Friday, 1 September 2000