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Herbal medicine for dengue discovered
A study conducted by the Institute of Tropical Disease (ITD) at the University of Airlangga (Unair) in Surabaya, East Java, has found a new herbal medicine to cure dengue fever
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study conducted by the Institute of Tropical Disease (ITD) at the University of Airlangga (Unair) in Surabaya, East Java, has found a new herbal medicine to cure dengue fever.
The medicine, called Malaleuca Alternifolia Concentrate (MAC), is claimed effective to kill 96 percent of dengue viruses in a patient body.
ITD head Nasronudin said that until now dengue fever medication had been focused only on strengthening the immune system of a patient infected with dengue.
He said previously dengue had been handled by increasing the platelet count of patients and purging the localized environment of the two species of carrier mosquitoes (aides aegypti and aides albovictus).
'There has been no medication proven effective to kill dengue virus; however a string of clinical trials both to animal and humans has shown a significant decrease of virus in patient bodies after consuming MAC,' Nasronudin said on Monday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
He said the herbal medicine's name was taken from a plant called malaleuca alternifolia, which is widely known by Australian Aborigines as effective medication to cure cough and cold.
'The plant originates from Australia and is also known as narrow-leaved tea tree. We took the concentrate from the plant's leaves to cure dengue fever,' said Nasronudin.
He added that the terpinen oil contained in the plant leaves could destroy dengue virus.
'We are working together with the Health Ministry's research and development agency to extract terpinen as its is antiviral in nature,' he said.
Nasronudin said the capsule-formed herbal medicine had gone through three clinical trials.
The herbal medicine is reportedly in a final trial conducted by Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) before it will be mass-produced. 'We are optimistic that this year the medicine will start to be produced,' Nasronudin said. (put/ebf)
