Eating soursop to beat diabetes, heart disease, cancer (Cont'd)
By Chukwuma Muanya.
.... Streptozotocin (Streptozocin, STZ, Zanosar) is a naturally occurring chemical that is particularly toxic to the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas in mammals. It is used in medicine for treating certain cancers of the Islets of Langerhans and used in medical research to produce an animal model for Type 2 diabetes.
Streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia in rats is considered a good model for the preliminary screening of agents active against Type 2 diabetes and is widely used. Generally, destruction of Beta-cells starts three days after STZ administration and reaches its peak at three to four weeks in rats. Streptozotocin-induced diabetes in laboratory animals has been widely used for research on diabetes and its long-term complications.
The study titled "Effects Of Annona muricata (Soursop) On The Morphology Of Pancreatic Islet Cells Of Experimentally-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats" was published in Internet Journal of Alternative Medicine, 2008 Volume 5 Number 2 by David Olawale Adeyemi, Omobola Aderibigbe Komolafe, Stephen Olarinde Adewole, Efere Martins Obuotor, Thomas Kehinde Adenowo.
Soursop has been found to contain numerous bioactive compounds useful for the management of various ailments including Diabetes Mellitus (DM), Type 2 diabetes, in folkloric medicine. The management of DM depends on continuous hypoglycemic therapy, which may not be consistently adhere to by the patient. The researchers therefore, investigated whether or not extracts of Soursop could provide lasting hypoglycemic control through regeneration of the destroyed Beta-cells of the pancreatic islets of experimentally induced diabetic Wistar rats.
The result of this study demonstrated that Soursop possesses anti-hyperlipidemic activities. Hyperlipidemia, hyperlipoproteinemia, dyslipidemia or hyperlipidaemia (British English) is the presence of raised or abnormal levels of lipids (fatty molecules) and/or lipoproteins in the blood.
The researchers from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State include David Olawale Adeyemi, Omobola Aderibigbe Komolafe, Stephen Olarinde Adewole all of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Efere Martins Obuotor of Department of Biochemistry.
The study was published in The Internet Journal of Alternative Medicine, 2009 Volume 7 Number 1.
Nigerian researchers have used the fruit juice of Soursop to stop diarrhoea in children and adults. The study, titled "Use of Soursop and Sweetsop Juice in the Management of Diarrhoea in Children", was published in Journal Diarrhoeal Disease Resident by Dr. Ifeoma B. Enweani of the Department of Microbiology Faculty of Natural Sciences, Edo State University, Ekpoma, Edo State.
The juice was administered onto 25 ,children aged six- 20 months and five adults With acute watery diarrhoea. Children with prolonged diarrhoea, malnutrition, or other major systemic illnesses were excluded. Five mL of the juice was administered on to the patients three times daily for up to 72 hours.
The fruit juice was able to resolve the diarrhoeic condition at 48 hours. This conforms to the report that at 48 hours 42 per cent of the diarrhoeic patients treated with smectite were free from diarrhoea. Zinc available in the juice had been reported to bring about significant reduction in intestinal fluid loss. This suggests that Soursop juice can be used as, a complementary source for Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in the management of diarrhoea in children and adults. This could reduce morbidity and mortality rate in children, specially in the developing nations.
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