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SUTHERLANDIA

Donation of Sutherlandia Tablets

Compassion Response Network has received a donation of 36 bottles of Sutherlandia herbal tablets. Each bottle contains 60 tablets of 300 mg. Each patient takes two tablets after meals twice a day (in all four tablets a day). So 36 bottles will last three patients for 6 months of treatment each.

The donation of Sutherlandia tablets has generously been provided by Michelle Gericke, of Alternative African Health Solutions Telephone +27 11 485 2611 Mobile 082 766 9968 Email africanhealth@mweb.co.za Fax +27 11 485 2611 Postnet Suite 225 Private Bag X5 Norwood 2117 South Africa.

About Sutherlandia

From website http://www.sutherlandia.org

Sutherlandia frutescens is regarded as the most profound and multi-purpose of the medicinal plants in Southern Africa. Because of its efficacy as a safe tonic for diverse health conditions it has enjoyed a long history of use by all cultures in Southern Africa.

The results of the recent three month safety study conducted by the IKS division of the Medical Research Council of South Africa have shown that Sutherlandia Frutescens is totally safe and non-toxic within the parameters of this study.

Sutherlandia powerfully assists the body to mobilise its own resources to cope with diverse physical and mental stresses, and it should therefore be more correctly known as an adaptogenic tonic.

The traditional Tswana name Phetola alludes to this: Phetola means "it changes", meaning that the plant changes the course of many illness into a favourable outcome. (Similar to the European concept of an alternative). The North Sotho name Lerumo-lamadi means "the spear for the blood" meaning that Sutherlandia is a powerful blood-purifier or all-purpose tonic.

The indigenous, folk, and contemporary uses of Sutherlandia include use as a tonic for:

 

Safety

In keeping with World Health Organisation guidelines of the assessment of herbal medicines, Sutherlandia is generally regarded as safe on the basis of its long history of safe use in South Africa. No severe adverse effects are known.

Known side-effects include occasional reports of dry mouth, occasional reports of mild diuretic effect; occasional reports of loose stool, occasional reports of constipation. Slight dizziness has been occasionally noted in very wasted and weak patients (e.g. in an ill adult weighing 35kg) who take Sutherlandia without meals this is corrected by instructing wasted patients to take the product after meals.

Although there is a well-established traditional use of taking Sutherlandia in pregnancy, this is not recommended until there is further evidence of safety during pregnancy.

There were no deaths in mice given the enormous dose of 1,500mg/kg by mouth.

Sutherlandia and HIV/AIDS

Improvements in appetite, weight-gain, sleep, exercise tolerance, anxiety and overall sense of well-being can be expected. Researchers anticipate that there will be a delayed progression of HIV into Aids, and actual remission of the disease is hoped for. This will require compliance of appropriate doses of the correct selection of Sutherlandia take on an ongoing basis, in addition to meticulous attention to diet. Alcohol, recreational drugs and other drugs that damage the immune system should be avoided.

Most wasted patients show an increase in weight within six weeks of starting treatment. Weight gains of 10-15 kg have been documented in wasted cancer and AIDS patients. Interestingly weight-gain is typically not seen in people without underlying wasting conditions.

Improvements in CD4 counts and decreases in the viral load in AIDS patients taking Sutherlandia have been reported by clinicians in South Africa and Australia. These promising clinical anecdotes need to be validated by an independent controlled clinical trial, and a cooperation in this regard is under discussion with the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

CD4 and Viral Load changes reported by clinicians in HIV+ patients treated with Sutherlandia tablets produced by the South African company Phyto Nova.

These preliminary reports are not a substitute for results from a controlled clinical trial, but support the hypothesis that Sutherlandia is a profound immune stimulant and anti-viral plant.

23 May 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs. Starting CD4 was 340. After two months of Phyto Nova Sutherlandia a dose of 300mg twice a day : CD4 : 533.

18 June 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs. Patient’s viral load decreased from 25 000 to 5 000 on two months Phyto Nova Sutherlandia at a dose of 600mg 12 hourly.

18 June 2001 In March 2001 the patient had been off antiretroviral drugs for 2 months, and his viral load was 57,000 and CD4 was 480. In May Sutherlandia was added to other naturopathic remedies. In June, after almost 6 weeks on 300mg Phyto Nova Sutherlandia twice a day, his viral load had fallen to 9,200 and his CD4's had risen to 647.

4 July 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs. Viral load at start 28 000, after 2 months of Phyto Nova Sutherlandia at a dose of 600mg twice a day, the viral load was 13 000.

4July 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs . CD4 increased from 258 on 14 March to 311 on 20 June, after using Sutherlandia 300mg twice a day. This is the highest CD4 count patient has since 1999.

8 August 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs. Starting CD4 407, after six weeks Phyto Nova Sutherlandia : CD4 was 478. Starting viral load 246 600, after six weeks Phyto Nova Sutherlandia : viral load was 88 153

13 September 2001

Patient not on anti-retroviral drugs. CD4 of 90 in October 2000 when patient began Phyto Nova Sutherlandia. In January 2001 the CD4 was 213. The patient used Sutherlandia from November 2000 to end of May 2001, and then restarted Phyto Nova Sutherlandia in August 2001. In August 2001 the CD4 was 240, and viral load was 7700.

When we refer to Sutherlandia on this site <www.sutherlandia.org> , we are talking specifically about Sutherlandia frutescens subspecies microphylla elite (PN1™) chemotype.

An elite chemotype of Sutherlandia frutescens (based specifically on the Microphylla subspecies) has been developed by Phyto Nova, where specific phytochemical compounds, including amino acids, are assayed and quantified and it is the seeds of this chemotype that are planted for selected Sutherlandia products.

This chemotype has been developed to ensure that batches of Sutherlandia are of reproducible quality, and so that research, such as safety studies, can be reliably applied to the actual product being sold. All the studies mentioned on this site are based on Sutherlandia frutescens subspecies microphylla elite (PN1™) chemotype.

Sutherlandia frutescens subspecies microphylla elite (PN1™) chemotype is also the form of Sutherlandia that was used in the Medical Research Council Safety Study. To our knowledge, no other forms of Sutherlandia have been formally safety tested.

The only brands that we are aware of that use this elite chemotype are Big Tree African Ginseng™, Phyto Nova Sutherlandia and The Sutherlandia Company Sutherlandia.

Sutherlandia frutescens subspecies microphylla elite (PN1™) chemotype is the preferred form for clinical application.

---

From an article "Not just a pretty plant" By Carolyn Dempster in Johannesburg Nov/2001

Sutherlandia Frutescens grows wild in the Western Cape and in the hills of Zululand.

A particular variety of the plant has been used for centuries as a potent medicine by South Africa's indigenous San people who call it "Insisa" - the one that dispels darkness. They used it as an energy booster and a powerful anti-depressant.

Zulu sangomas or traditional healers know it as "Unwele", the great medicine that was used to ward off the effects of the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic which claimed 20 million lives worldwide.

The Tswana people know it as "Mukakana" for its power in treating gonorrhoea and syphilis, while the Afrikaners call it the "Kankerbossie" or cancer bush, because of its properties in treating people suffering with internal cancers and wasting.

A local company specialising in the development of indigenous plant medicines, Phyto Nova, first started researching the bio-chemical properties of Sutherlandia about three years ago.

A multi-disciplinary team headed by Dr Nigel Gericke, a botanist, medical doctor and indigenous plant specialist, found that Sutherlandia contained a powerful combination of molecules which have been identified and used in the treatment of patients with cancer tuberculosis, diabetes, schizophrenia and clinical depression and as an antiretroviral agent.

Phyto Nova were so convinced that Sutherlandia could be used as a tonic for people infected with HIV and Aids, that they contracted farmers to plant acres of the bush, to prevent wild supplies being over-harvested. They have been manufacturing high quality Sutherlandia tablets, gel and powder.

Having determined that the product was safe when administered with a balanced food diet, the company distributed Sutherlandia to Aids patients.

"Anecdotally we are accumulating evidence that wasted patients with Aids, TB and cancer pick up weight, regain energy and appetite," says Dr Gericke.

"The claim we are making on the basis of this, is that we can significantly and dramatically improve the quality of life of many ill Aids patients... We are certainly not making the absurd claim that Sutherlandia is a cure-all or a cure for Aids."

Whatever comes of the clinical trial, word of the plant's properties is already spreading among South Africa's traditional healers.

At the same time as Phyto Nova was conducting its research, one of the country's most venerated traditional healers, Dr Credo Mutwa, 80, was using Sutherlandia to treat Aids patients.

"My aunt Minah, who is 103 years old, told me that we should use the great medicine against Aids," said Dr Mutwa. "I said to her: 'But aunt, the white people tell us there is no cure for this disease'.

"And my aunt said: 'For every disease there is a treatment. Try this medicine'. And I tried it."

"I have treated people who were told by the doctors at the hospital to 'go home and die' and they are still alive today, three years after they should have died. This plant is near-miraculous, I can say that with certainty," he says.

Testimony to the efficacy of the plant continues to mount.

Anne Hutchings, an ethno-botanist and lecturer at the University of Zululand has been using Sutherlandia, together with a range of other indigenous plant medicines, to treat Aids patients who attend the weekly Aids clinic at Ngwelezane Hospital.

She has 176 patients who all testify that Sutherlandia has helped them to live a fuller, healthier and more productive life.

In the Northern Cape town of Kuruman, nurse and sangoma, Virginia Rathele is using Sutherlandia at her clinic to treat more than 300 Aids patients.

She says an integral part of the treatment is to tell patients to eat healthily. "Sutherlandia does not work properly just on a diet of porridge. You have to have vegetables," she said.

One client, who weighed 26kg and was close to death in April this year, now weighs 45kg and is helping Ms Rathele run the clinic.

Patents cannot be taken out on plants which have well-documented folk use, which means that Sutherlandia should remain accessible to anyone.

At present, one month's supply of Phyto Nova tablets costs a little under $2.50 and two months' supply of the powder form of the medication can be bought for under 50 cents.

Phyto Nova has approached the South African Government in a bid to persuade them to grow the plant on a massive scale for use in public health treatment.

So far they have had no response.

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From an article by David Icke "Credo Mutwa Reveals AIDS Treatment", recorded April 29th 2001 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Credo: "You plant the plant, but then you take the little leaves from it and you put them in a tea cup and you pour much boiling water on it. And then you let the cup stand there, like tea, the patient just drinks."

Credo: "You can take them straight from the garden, because if you dry them too much they somehow lose some of their good spirit."

Now this is all you do. Now, there are good doctors I'm working with who are making pills out of this medicine. But you know sir, I feel we are faced with a national emergency, a world emergency.

You know sir, what I say is this. I can't cure the people of Africa without curing the people of the Caribbean, because Aids is running around the world. If I cure the people here and they get better, more Aids will come in and eat the same people whom I tried to cure. So the whole world must be cured. Look, can we say this? Nobody will arrest us or anything?"

Credo: "You need to take a fine sandpaper and sandpaper each little seed. The seeds are very tiny, tinier than grape seeds. And you sandpaper each seed and you plant it in a small blompot (flower pot). And you allow it to grow until it is about maybe four inches, three inches high. Then you take it and you plant it in the big veld (grassland). You can make a big garden, maybe twenty acres or so and you plant there. "

One Sutherlandia plant' is capable of treating 10 people, and we need plantations of this plant. And I say that this plant should not be the plaything of greedy businessmen. It should not be the plaything of thieving pharmaceutical organisations that steal Africa's treasures and lock them up in computers and call them their intellectual property. I say this that this plant belongs to all the humankind, and that the greedy organisations leave it alone. We do not need a disease like Aids to reduce the population of the world. I am told that this disease was created specifically to destroy Africa and I now believe this. After more than five years of dealing with this disease. And I say this. I will not allow Africa, a misunderstood and misrepresented nation, a misunderstood and misrepresented continent, to perish, to suit the designs of conspirators. I say that Africa must live, I say that India must live, China must live, and even the United States must live. There is hope, a little ray of hope, a green ray of hope, emanating from South Africa, and I call on all human fellow human beings to make it larger, to spread hope throughout the world. I beg to remind all that there was once a time malaria devastated whole communities throughout the middle east, throughout Africa and elsewhere. And out of South America there appeared a ray of hope, which grew, larger and larger. That ray of hope was called the bark of the Cinchona tree, quinine. And quinine saved thousands of lives, which would have otherwise been swept into oblivion.

I say that people should not look upon me as a quack or a crank. I am a researcher, self-taught. I am a writer of books, which have sold world-wide. I am an inventor and a historian and a traditional healer. And I say please, those who don't believe me come to South Africa and look at this plant yourself. I say that no organisation has the right to call this plant it's property, none. And I say let hope for humankind be lighted from the southern tip of Africa to overspread the whole planet.

If Aids were created to reduce the human population, then it is a self-defeating thing. The only way to make people breed less is to end war in the world. When there is war shaking continents people breed more. People breed out of fear. People breed out of insecurity. You, the hypocrites of the United Nations, you the liars within the walls of the United Nations, you, I challenge you to create a safer world and not a world rotten with disease.

Thank You.
Credo Mutwa

Related Resource Materials:

What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? by Christine Maggiore
World Without AIDS by Steven Ransom and Phillip Day

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