Homemade Tamiflu ?!?

[TexasLawyer]

I came upon this piece of intelligence accidentally, after I bought a sweetgum tree for my yard and wanted to see how tall it might grow.

Shikimic acid-- apparently found in sizable quantities in sweetgum tree seedpods-- is a main ingredient in the anti-viral against bird flu. Star anise also contains very high amounts of shikimic acid.

If worse comes to worse-- maybe this will be something good to know! To the scientist types out there-- how would one extract the acid? Or would one just gnaw on a seedpod? Just in case we're desperate, that is. But knowing how well this nation responded to Katrina, I can readily imagine that many of us might actually be that desperate!


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/acs-stc031706.php

Public release date: 29-Mar-2006

Sweetgum tree could help lessen shortage of bird flu drug

ATLANTA, March 29 — The sweetgum tree grows widely throughout the country and is known for its mace-like green fruit, which are sometimes called "gumballs." Now, this spiny fruit may become an important source of a chemical needed to make a lifesaving drug against bird flu — a drug that is currently in short supply worldwide, researchers say.

Chemists have found that the seeds of the sweetgum fruit contain significant amounts of shikimic acid, the starting material used to produce the main antiviral agent in a much-heralded drug for fighting bird flu. Their findings, which could help increase the global supply of the drug, were described today at the 231st national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

Shikimic acid is used to make a generic drug called oseltamivir — best known commercially as Tamiflu® — which is used to fight many types of flu viruses. Some health experts believe that this and similar antiviral drugs could help save lives by slowing the spread of the virus in the absence of a bird flu vaccine, which is still in development.

The drug, which blocks the replication of the flu virus, is being stockpiled worldwide to slow or stop a possible bird flu pandemic that some experts predict could kill millions — if the virus mutates into a form that can spread from person to person. The virus, a strain known as H5N1, primarily afflicts birds at present but has been known to kill a small but growing number of humans who have had close contact with infected birds.

<snip>

Although shikimic acid is found in the leaves and bark of the tree, it is most abundant in the fruit, Poon says. In the mature tree, the fruit emerges as a green seedpod that later dries into a brown, spiny husk, which releases an abundance of tiny, grain-like seeds. To optimize shikimic acid extraction, the gumballs need to be harvested when they are still green and before the seeds have been dispersed, Poon says. Each tree can hold hundreds, if not thousands, of seedpods.

<snip>

[TexasLawyer]

1. Star anise/ Tamiflu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_anise

Star anise has been used in a tea as a remedy for colic and rheumatism, and the seeds are sometimes chewed after meals to aid digestion.

Although it is produced in most autotrophic organisms, star anise is the industrial source of shikimic acid, a primary ingredient used to create the anti-flu drug Tamiflu. Tamiflu is regarded as the most promising drug to mitigate the severity of bird flu (H5N1); however, reports indicate that some forms of the virus have already adapted to Tamiflu.

A shortage of star anise is one of the key reasons why there is a worldwide shortage of Tamiflu (as of 2005). Star anise is grown in four provinces in China and harvested between March and May. The shikimic acid is extracted from the seeds in a ten-stage manufacturing process which takes a year. Reports say 90% of the harvest is already used by the Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche in making Tamiflu, but other reports say there is an abundance of the spice in the main regions - Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. uhh oh... the cynic in me speaks out and says...

how much ya wanna bet the other supplies of star anise are priced higher, and Roche doesn't want to pay the higher price. :tinfoilhat:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. First thing I found...

"Shikimic acid is a precursor of many alkaloids, aromatic amino acids, and indole derivatives. Shikimic acid is widely used as a chiral building block for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. An example of end product is an antiviral drug oseltamivir, a neuraminidase inhibitor used in the treatment and prophylaxis of both influenza A and influenza B."

Sounds like it's a basic ingredient to many drugs... still googling... :)

[Steve A Play]

4. I got this in my in box yesterday,

Has anyone else heard anything about it? :shrug:

Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 2:48 PM
Subject: MUST READ!


"Bird Flu"

Do you know that 'bird flu' was discovered in Vietnam 9 years ago?

Do you know that barely 100 people have died in the whole world in all that time?

Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the efficacy of the human antiviral TAMIFLU as a preventative.

Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the common flu?

Do you know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned by a great part of the scientific community?

Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1, TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness?

Do you know that to date Avian Flu affects birds only?

Do you know who markets TAMIFLU?

ROCHE LABORATORIES.

Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU from ROCHE LABORATORIES in 1996?

GILEAD SCIENCES INC.

Do you know who was the then president of GILEAD SCIENCES INC. and remains a major shareholder?

DONALD RUMSFELD, the present Secretary of Defense of the USA.

Do you know that the base of TAMIFLU is crushed aniseed?

Do you know who controls 90% of the world's production of this tree?

ROCHE.

Do you know that sales of TAMIFLU were over $254 million in 2004 and more than $1000 million in 2005?

Do you know how many more millions ROCHE can earn in the coming months if the business of fear continues?


So the summary of the story is as follows:

Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years.

This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu.

In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans.

Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay him a fortune.
Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed, the base for the antivirus.

The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche.

So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush do the business.

ARE WE CRAZY!!? OR ARE WE IDIOTS!!?

AT LEAST PASS THIS ON SO THAT IT CAN BE KNOWN!!!!!!!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Thank you

great points.

However, I am still looking into growing star anise in Oregon. Growing exotic things is cool. :)


don't pick the wrong Star Anise!
"It is not always safe to presume that members of the same genus have similar chemical compositions. Illicium verum of China, commonly known as star anise, is used as a spice in cooking and liquor (and the shikimic acid extracted from it is used in the production of Tamiflu). The Japanese star anise, Illicium anisatum, is however severely toxic – its chemicals can cause severe inflammation of the kidneys, urinary tract and digestive organs, as well as affecting the nervous system. To read more, see Wikipedia's entries on Illicium anisatum and Illicium verum."
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2006/03/

[mcscajun]

6. Others have posted the Tamiflu-Rumsfeld connection here at DU

No one's disputing it AFAIK.

The disease has a 50% fatality rate -- truly alarming in any disease, however transmitted. So far, while this flu strain has only been transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected birds, if it mutates, either through transmission to swine then to humans, or it finds a human host with a "normal" flu strain already present, it could recombine into a form that would be transmissable from person to person, something that does not exist as of yet. That's the risk we're looking at. BushCo didn't manufacture this threat; it doesn't mean they aren't poised to take political and economical advantage of it. None of that makes the threat any less real.

I've been involved in this discussion for the past several months here at DU.

If the pandemic hits, the World Health Organization is is talking about possible death figures of between 5 million and 150 million people worldwide. Concern shown by Bush is another matter; as usual, George "arrives late for the party and shits on the dining room table"; in this case, by using the Avian flu scare for one of his "be afraid, be very afraid...and only I can save you" speeches. Meanwhile, yes, Rumsfeld stands to make a killing, yet Tamiflu has already proven mostly ineffective, as your scare mail points out. Relenza is now the drug the EU medical community is looking at for avian flu treatement.

Someone else here at DU at one point in the Avia Flu discussion talked about Bush being the little boy who cried 'wolf'; and they're right. While he's been busy scaring those he can, those of us he can't scare have been growing more and more cynical about what comes out of his mouth, to the point that even if he managed one day to state an absolute truth that we already knew to be true, we'd have to check with our sources before we'd truly accept it. This is the ultimate danger of the man. (I use the term "man" loosely, and with apologies to male humans everywhere.)

BushCo never found a fear they wouldn't (or couldn't) exploit. It's like flies to shit.
The threat of avian flu turning into a pandemic is, unfortunately, quite real.