D. Mindock wrote:
There have been a considerable number of studies on herbs. It is a myth
that
herbs haven't
been studied. BTW, an herb is any plant that has
special properties. A carrot might be called an herb since it helps the
eyes.
your example is proving one of my points. you cant necessarily trust
traditional wisdom. Further confounding things is that not only is
vitamin A essential in small amounts, it is both toxic and teratogenic
at higher concentrations. There is enough Vit. A in a polar bear
liver to kill a person, and there are documented cases of fishermen
you became violently ill from consuming certain fish livers such as
halibut.
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp
Claim: Eating carrots results in improved vision.
Status: False.
your example is proving one of my points. you cant necessarily trust
traditional wisdom. Further confounding things is that not only is
vitamin A essential in small amounts, it is both toxic and teratogenic
at higher concentrations. There is enough Vit. A in a polar bear
liver to kill a person, and there are documented cases of fishermen
you became violently ill from consuming certain fish livers such as
halibut.
If thing were so simple as natural is safe and good and synthetic is
bad...
Strawberries slow
down cancer.
I.E., they have medicinal properties. Big Pharma will study an
herb to pick out those chemicals that have the properties they're looking
for. E.g., Cat's Claw (graviola is another) is believed to have
anti-cancer
properties. So a drug company will look for what they believe is the
"active" ingredient and find the chemical analogue.
I am not well versed in chemical patent law but I think you are
oversimplifying here. Generally the reason companies look for analogs
is to find better efficacy, lowered side effects, simpler structures
which lend themselves to production, or any combination thereof.
Merely extracting the
active ingredient will not allow the patenting of it. But the man-made
analogue of it will. So they test the analogue and then submit it to the
FDA
for its test. 200 million dollars is the figure
I have heard that this test costs. So, the ability to get a patent on a
synthetic analogue is what gives Big Pharma
the leverage to make billions on just one new drug. The markup on a drug
is
sometimes as high as
50,000%, making drug manufacturing obscenely lucrative. The ones that
bomb,
like Vioxx, are just the
cost of doing business. With the huge markups and huge profits comes
political power, unfortunately for us
all.
no argument there
Peace, D. Mindock
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Street" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] amazing himalayan salt
Hey Bob;
Again, follow the money. Where is the funding going to come from to
test the efficacy of something anyone can grow and pick themselves.
Drug companies are loathe to spend a dime on any testing unless they are
forced to do so by the regulating bodies. They sure as hell aren't going
to waste that dime on something they can't control or sell.
Joe
bob allen wrote:
snip
The
problem with herbs is, as I have said before, there is little to no
proof of efficacy for the vast majority of them. I not saying they
don't work, I am just saying that scientific evidence for efficacy is
lacking.
snip
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--
------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Allen,http://ozarker.org/bob
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
The modern conservative is engaged in one of Man's oldest exercises
in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral
justification for selfishness JKG
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