UGANDA | 1000 Acre Botanical Greenhouse

1000 ACRE BOTANICAL GREENHOUSE

Uganda - Land of Milk and Honey

In the capital of Sudan, Khartoum the White Nile meets with the Blue Nile in dramatic fashion as the poets call it, “the longest kiss in history” but rather than searching for passion and conflict my curiosity took me further down the African map to the origins of Man. If all Mankind came from Africa, then surely we must have all originated from the source of the Nile? The source of the White Nile starts to rise in Lake Victoria near a village called Jinga or some call Ginga in Uganda. It is from these parts of the world that scientists have, for decades, been searching for cures for TB, asthma, HIV and blood related cancers. It is my understanding, that even today, Ugandan mothers take their newly born children down to the banks and plaster the mineral rich mud all over the bodies of their babies. This ritual is performed in order to protect the children from leprosy, tuberculosis and to boost the child’s immune system. The news of this ancient tradition soon found its way to the UK and as far back as the 1970’s research was conducted by British scientists who were intent on finding the secrets within the mud found on the banks of the Nile in Uganda. Six years ago I was informed of a clinical drug trial designed for patients with breast cancer known as the “Dirt Vaccine”. The microbiologist, Dr John Standford and his wife Cynthia worked amongst Ugandans afflicted with leprosy and tuberculosis and treated the patients with mycrobacterium vaccae, the rather elaborate Latin term for Ugandan mud. It has been well documented that mycrobacterium vaccae unlocks the body’s natural power to fight a wide range of diseases. The late David Pickering, an oncologist who worked in Maidstone, Kent used this vaccine on women with breast cancer with interesting results.

See: http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/7892/dirt-vaccine-research

Could this Ugandan mud be the DNA of all Creation? Are the origins of Creation to be found on the banks of the Nile in Uganda? These were the thoughts that were racing around my head as I began my journey to the Ngoma workshop in the Western Region in the beautiful village of Kazo in 2008.

I arrived at Entebbe International Airport, famed for it’s spectacular Libyan hijacking in the Idi Amin regime in the mid 1970’s. The airport was clean and efficient, giving the inkling of a rather sophisticated country. Ben Bukenya, one of the Organizers, had generously arranged for a car to pick me up and drive me to the Capital and as I entered into the airport car park, Joseph instantly recognised me, as I was one of the few whites at the airport. He greeted me with such an enormous smile it was a genuine pleasure to be back on African soil.

Kampala was surprisingly hot for the rainy season and my first impression was of an extraordinary country. Huge black and white feathered Cranes perched carefully on the high white roadside lights as if to welcome visitors to the Capital. The smells were intoxicating as the countryside was crying out for rain. We arrived a little late at the Hotel Africa and we were greeted by some of the best emerging artists on and off the continent. Within minutes I was nervously introducing myself as the person who wrote the African Artists blog and was keen to photograph the various artists and find out more about their work.

Standing in front of the group was the rather impressive General of the Armed Forces, the Honourable General Elly Tumwine. He was dressed immaculately and wore a pair of trendy dark glasses, which covered up his damaged eye. Late I was told he had been injured in the war for Independence against the British. The General explained that he too was an artist and expressed how delighted he was to welcome us all to his beloved Uganda.



Honourable General Elly Tumwine

An overwhelming sense of relief passed over me in the reassuring knowledge that the head of the army was taking care of the group. I was thrilled to see such a variety of artists from all over the Continent present at the workshop, such exceptional artists as Stephen Garan’anga from Zimbabwe, Gordon Shamulenge from Zambia, the political cartoonist, Fred Halla from Tanzania and Innocent Nkurunziza from Rwanda. To my surprise Lilian Nabulime, the Ugandan sculptor, made a guest appearance and we greeted each other as old friends. I had previously met Lilian in 2004 in London and arranged for her to do an interview with BBC Africa Network. She spoke eloquently about her sculptural work with clear soaps. The soaps were shaped as both male and female reproductive organs and inside one could see the rusty nails and rotten seeds. This was a series of works expressing an interesting and intelligent artistic interpretation of the effects of HIV/Aids.




Dr Philip Kwesiga

The person I was most interested in meeting was Dr Philip Kwesiga, the famous ceramicist from Uganda. The Organizers had teamed us up and for the two-week duration of the workshop, we lived together at the glorious home of Mr and Mrs Katugunda, who were fantastic hosts.






Mr. Sam Mugisha Katugunda

Mr. Sam Mugisha Katugunda is a Preacher, Magistrate and Dairy Farmer all rolled into one. His love for the land and his cows was a wonderful sight to behold and his deep concerns for the future are being echoed all over the continent. Mrs Katugunda is a terrific cook and Philip and I slept on heavy stomachs every evening during our two-week stay.

The countryside in Western Uganda is the most fertile I have ever seen. One begins to realise just why the country is known as the land of milk and honey. I had left the UK with preconceptions that I was entering a country full of disease, political unrest and raging war. A country rife with HIV and Aids coupled with the Ebola virus and the plague but to my satisfaction I found the countryside rich in minerals and a veritable Eden. The school children and the grown ups all had a wonderfully healthy glow about them. I found a country that grew eight varieties of bananas, fabulous passion fruit, pineapples and numerous pumpkins and all the food grown in Uganda is grown without the need for artificial fertilizers. In fact the region produces more milk than the country can drink and even exports to neighbouring Tanzania and Sudan. The fresh air was such a powerful tonic I was flabbergasted that I felt so well.

The workshop was an interesting mix of talking to the different schools in Kazo and then encouraging the pupils to create artworks for their compounds; “Talking Compounds” was the title and the artists, alongside the pupils created visual aids for each school. The aim of the workshop was to create awareness of the importance of mosquito nets and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and Aids.

The parents that housed the group were extremely concerned that the artists would find their homes inadequate but the real success story of the workshop was those families that housed us. They were quietly astonished to find that we all fully appreciated their generous hospitality and enjoyed the time spent talking about Uganda and life in the countryside.

Personally, I enjoyed and gained so much from spending time with all the artists; Stephan Garan’anga with his interesting political views on Zimbabwe, my great drinking partners Gordon Shamulenge and Innocent Nkurunziza and especially, Dr Philip Kwesiga. Philip and I spoke at length about the way in which he painted and glazed his pots. The different firing techniques he had learnt in the UK and most importantly about the Ugandan mud or clay that he particularly enjoyed working with. I told Philip about the “Dirt Vaccine” and the exciting health implications that that had on the work he was producing, the novel idea that a ceramic pot could be an important instrument for healing. The conversation developed and we started to talk about the land. We spoke about the importance of herbs: about the importance of the knowledge passed down from generation to generation. This simple practice is slowly beginning to be eroded with the influx of modern medicines. We spoke about the importance of documenting these herbs and retaining this most precious resource and not just from Uganda but from all over Africa: we spoke about his son and about architecture: about Renzo Piano and his new architectural work at the Natural Science Museum in San Francisco: about the Eden Project down in Cornwall.























Natural Science Museum in San Francisco by Renzo Piano

















The Eden Project in Cornwall


































Could the land that is presently being farmed by dairy cows be also used as a greenhouse? Could Uganda pull up the land as Piano has done in San Francisco and build a 1,000-acre herb garden, housing all the known herbs from all over Africa? I made the suggestion that rather than giving the herbs a complex Latin name why not refer to the plants in their Africa native language and archive the collection on African terms.

As we spoke we were abruptly interrupted by a series of screams coming from a nearby bar. Vigorous shrieks for the favoured Manchester United over ‘the Gunners’ of Arsenal . Philip’s eyebrows raised and he said, “It is a disgrace that Ugandans are so passionately supportive of a football team that isn’t even on the same continent and more importantly comes from the very country that colonized us. There is a huge interest in football here, I just don’t understand why we don’t create our own Premiership League and buy up cheap young European players from places like Poland or Bulgaria?” We both smiled and continued our conversation.

We spoke about golden carp being farmed in China in amongst the paddy fields alongside the rice: we spoke about planting the Nim trees for Malaria and Steven’s Cure from East London, South Africa to treat those with TB, herbs from the Republic of Benin that can reduce inoperable cancerous lumps and we spoke about Nejib Belkhodja and Slah Smaoui about the botanical garden, which the two created in Tunisia at the Village of Ken.

See: http://www.villageken.com.tn

If two men can create an entire village, just image what could be achieved with all the artists working collectively. Working to document, archive the knowledge from each Grandparent. The most important resource in Africa is not gold or diamonds, oil or timber but the knowledge passed down from each and everybody’s Grandparent. The majority of countries throughout the continent are fully aware of this rich currency but have for some reason allowed, as have we all, to fall victim to greed and modern day consumerism and Capitalism.

The new Independent Nations of Africa are in the ideal position to base their Nations currency on knowledge passed down from Grandparents rather than placing the Nations future on a western ideal of currency, which is based around items mined in Africa by Africans for westerners; based on unnecessary luxury items that are unattainable for the majority within Africa and frankly serve no purpose but to the minority that wears them. A country that has the courage to base it’s future on the importance of an ecological knowledge base rather than on the ridiculous notion that all that glitters is gold is a country that really is looking forward to a bright future.

© Joe Pollitt, 2009

South African Plants Fighting HIV/Aids

South African Plant 'Fights' Aids
Source: BBC Africa | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1683259.stm
Not just a pretty plant

By Carolyn Dempster in Johannesburg


A South African indigenous medicinal plant may hold the key to the treatment of millions of poor people living with HIV and Aids, helping them relieve the symptoms of Aids.

For the first time in South Africa's medical history, the plant, Sutherlandia Frutescens, sub-species Microphylla, is to undergo clinical trials to assess its immune-boosting properties.

We are certainly not making the absurd claim that Sutherlandia is a cure-all or a cure for Aids

Dr Nigel Gericke

Phyto Nova. The Medical Research Council will conduct the trials early next year and results are expected within three to six months.

Anecdotal evidence is already mounting, suggesting that this plant can improve the quality of life of thousands of people both with HIV and full-blown Aids.

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

Cancer bush

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.









Medicinal Traditional healers have been using it for decades




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.

Molecular combination

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.




Phyto Nova planted acres of the plant






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 anti-retroviral 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.

Quality of life

"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."


Sutherlandia does not work properly just on a diet of porridge - you have to have vegetables

Virginia Rathele
Nurse and sangoma
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."

'Near-miraculous'

"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.





Tablets, powder and gel are already on sale



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.

No response

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.





Rathele says that Sutherlandia only works with a balanced diet





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.

For more information see:

Cancer Bush @ Medicoherbs.co.za
http://www.medicoherbs.co.za/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=58
Sutherlandia| http://www.sutherlandia.org/ and http://www.sutherlandia.org/cancer.html

Secret Cures | The Umckaloabo Root

Stevens' Cure: a secret remedy
S W B Newsom, MD FRCPath
11 The Footpath, Coton, Cambridge CB3 7PX, UK

At the outset of the twentieth century the British Medical Association began a campaign against the sale of ‘patent medicines’. Some of these were innocuous tonics or cold cures such as Beecham's pills, but others claimed to cure the incurable including consumption and cancer. The BMA commissioned a chemist to analyse the medicines and cost the ingredients. His results were published in a BMJ series called ‘Secret remedies’. The first articles appeared in 1907, and were such a success that they were reprinted as a book of the same name (Figure 1) in 1909. In editorials the BMJ subsequently noted with annoyance that press reaction had been mixed. The Daily Telegraph and the Manchester Guardian had accepted advertisements, but the Express, Star, Graphic and News of the World had not (and had refused to review the book). A few weeks later the BMA recorded that, despite this ‘conspiracy of silence’, sales were mounting. Altogether 150 000 copies of the book were sold in the UK and the Empire. In 1910-1914 further analyses were published in the BMJ, and More Secret Remedies was published in 1912. The emphasis of the campaign changed and, together with the pharmacists, the BMA successfully lobbied the Government to investigate the matter: a Select Committee on Patent Medicines was set up the same year.


Figure 1
Secret Remedies (1909)

Singled out both in Secret Remedies and in the BMJ articles was ‘Stevens' Consumption Cure’, which was being advertised with a money-back offer: ‘I do not say consumption is curable, but I say if you are consumptive I will guarantee to cure you or return your money in full’. According to the manufacturer the formula was 80 grains of umckaloabo root with 13½ grains of chichitse per ounce prepared according to British Pharmacopoeia methods. According to the BMA's chemist,
‘The medicine was a clear red liquid and analysis showed it to contain in 100 fluid parts, 23.1 alcohol, 1.8 glycerine, and 4 parts solids; about 1 part of tannin and 0.2 part ash. The solid substance agreed in all respects with the solids of decoction of krameria, or a mixture of this decoction with a little kino. The formula thus seems to be: Rectified spirit of wine... 23.7 parts, glycerine 1.8 parts, decoction of krameria (1 in 3) to 100 parts. Or it may be made with a tincture of krameria... estimated cost for 2 fl oz—1½ d’. Krameria or rhatany root is an astringent still used in herbal and homeopathic remedies.


ORIGIN OF THE CURE

Stevens had an eventful life. Born in 1880, at age 17 he consulted his doctor in Birmingham with chest symptoms. ‘You're for it my lad’ said the doctor. ‘The only hope is to go to South Africa’. There he was treated by a native doctor called Mike Chichitse (Kijitse) with a brew of umckaloabo root (which made him vomit) and a herb that he later called chichitse. He made a marvellous recovery and returned home cured, but with the idea of using his knowledge to help others. Back in South Africa, for a short time he ran a motor cycle repair garage (burnt down) and started to develop his ‘cure’ sold locally as ‘Lungsava’ and then ‘Sacco’. He obtained quite a good income from their sale, but returned to England (with supplies of materials) bankrupt in 1907. He offered various explanations for this misfortune: he had given a lot of money and cures away; he had been blackmailed; he had been arrested and fined for providing alcohol to the local population.

By the time Secret Remedies was published Stevens was 29 and CH Stevens Co had been established in London, with the encouragement of several doctors who had been sent free samples of ‘Sacco’ from South Africa. In 1905 The Lancet was very scathing about the remedies: ‘We've heard all this before... we are just waiting for the material from. Mount Ararat left there by Noah’. Truth also gave him a bad review, but quickly changed it when challenged, although by 1908 the cure was on its ‘cautionary list’, saying ‘Stevens has acquired a number of testimonials from medical men, who must now regret their precipitate action.’ He advertised in the press an ‘absolute cure for the white plague’, and in 1908 the company accounts revealed takings of £4415, and £457 spent on basic materials from Dyer and Dyer in Cape Town. He wrote to the Brompton Hospital inviting them to inoculate him with the bacilli of tuberculosis, so he could prove his cure—the only stipulation being that they then administer the cure to their patients at his expense. The reply some months later was (not surprisingly) ‘your offer is of a nature we are unable to accept’.

LAWSUITS

The BMA kept a worried eye on Stevens and a BMJ editorial (27 August 1910) noted that, following a legal action, the widow of a deceased patient had succeeded in recovering £10 from him. They were pleased to record the judge's comments that the cure was ‘an intentional and well-considered fraud’, that the remedies had not the slightest value and that if Stevens had said it was extract of ‘high-cockalorum-jig-jig-jig’ it would have been equally informative.

The Select Committee interviewed 42 witnesses including the BMA secretary, Dr Alfred Cox, who was asked how many libel suits were pending as a result of publication of Secret Remedies. The answer was one—Stevens versus the BMA, which was fully recorded in the BMJ and also in The Times, in October 1912 and July 1914. Both sides used lawyers, and the trial was held in front of a jury. At the outset Stevens was asked why he had delayed the action so long, and replied that when Secret Remedies first appeared he had not regarded it as a threat, but later he found that every doctor had a copy on his desk, with a second to lend to patients. Reading the proceedings with hindsight it seems that Stevens had a good case, in that he could prove the BMA analysis was incorrect, and he produced both doctors and patients to support his claim for efficacy. Sacks of the root (and chichitse) were produced, to show it really existed and was not just ‘krameria’. Mr E Harrison, the BMA analyst, was asked to taste tinctures of krameria and Stevens cure, and had to admit they were different. He withdrew his description of Stevens as a swindler but maintained he was a ‘quack’. Finally the BMA implied that they never said the cure contained krameria but that it was ‘like krameria’, although a look at the actual analysis makes this a very fine point.

The BMA aimed to discredit Stevens. Why, they asked, had he no shares in the company? Answer: because his bankruptcy prevented him holding any. At this stage, The Times noted, Stevens broke down and wept, saying he had been blackmailed. How much had he repaid on his ‘bonds’? £60 he said, and following publication of Secret Remedies his income had fallen to £2900. While little medical evidence against the cure was presented, Stevens was accused of ‘trapping and lying to vulnerable people’. Stevens' bacteriologist was asked about the correspondence, which was said to number up to a hundred letters a day, making work for five ladies in an attic. Dr Aubrey Latham, a physician from Portland Place, stated for the BMA that there was no known cure for consumption but that 20% of cases recovered spontaneously.

In a final speech Stevens declared that the BMA analysis of his medicine was libellous; producing the sacks of roots, he told the jury they should be grateful he had not produced hundreds of satisfied patients as witnesses. The judge in summing-up reminded the jury of Stevens' News of the World advertisement (15 May 1910), which was misleading in that it looked like a request to participate in an official trial (free), and noted that there were two kinds of quack—the one who believes and the one who does not: it was for the jury to decide into which group Stevens fell. The trial had lasted from 24 to 31 October 1912. After an hour and three-quarters the jury returned to say that, however long they had, they would never agree on a verdict.
In 1913 there was little to report. The Select Committee had a final meeting in June and issued an account of its proceedings, and the BMJ reported on a relevant legal case—Latham versus Stevens. This concerned a Mr Hogson, who had been referred (by Stevens) to Latham for a check-up on his consumptive state. Latham sent Hogson's sputum to the bacteriologist to the Royal Household and duly issued him with a ‘clearance certificate’, without knowing that he had had the Stevens cure. Latham's letter was then reproduced in advertisements that appeared in three newspapers, though Stevens nowhere stated that Latham approved of his cure. The court therefore did not hold Stevens guilty, but he agreed to pay all legal costs. 1914 saw the BMA in the ascendant. The Select Committee Report (891 pages) vindicated Secret Remedies and urged the Government to introduce legislation. Two pages of recommendations included a list of diseases such as cancer and consumption for which remedies of this sort should be banned. Only The Times and the New Statesman mentioned the report. The BMJ noted that the press had an income of two million pounds a year from advertising patent medicines.

A DEFEAT FOR STEVENS

The second trial was held from 16 to 23 July 1914, and this time the jury took only 15 minutes to record a verdict in favour of the BMA. Stevens conducted his own case and the BMA had a much stronger argument. The gloves were off. The BMA declared that the ingredients of the product did not appear in the British Pharmacopoeia, and accused Stevens of taking money under false pretences. Professor Bulloch reported laboratory tests showing that Stevens' mixture did not kill tubercle bacteria in ten minutes as claimed—or even in 48 hours. Stevens called patients to testify, and another witness was a Dr Bennett, recently returned (so he said) from Liberia. Bennett said that umckaloabo, which Stevens had already called by its African name of ‘blood spitting’, grew in Liberia and was called ‘life everlasting’. When asked his role in Liberia he stated he was a ‘commissioner’, adding ‘I could hang you if you committed an offence’. ‘Was this a paid job?’ ‘Yes I was sometimes paid’. This testimony cannot have helped Stevens' case, and it later transpired that the witness was an imposter who had served three jail sentences; the real Dr Bennett was in Australia. The BMA also attacked Dr Lord, Stevens' bacteriologist, suggesting he had been paid 5 shillings a week to address envelopes when not writing slightly misleading documents which were sent out with the medicine bottles. Did Mr Stevens know Lord was now in a Church Army home for dipsomaniacs? Whatever the merits of his case Stevens was routed, and was ordered to pay costs for both sides.

A FAILED BILL

An appeal next year for the case to be reopened was refused. Thus Secret Remedies had won—or so it seemed. War intervened. In 1920 a Bill implementing the recommendations of the Select Committee was prepared in the Lords. However, when a member inquired about the Bill's future, the answer came back... we hope in the next session. Afterwards, vested interests came into play (manufacturers, newspapers), including the Government itself. Duty on the sale of ‘secret medications’ was levied following the ‘Stamp Act’ of 1804 as amended in 1812; in 1908, forty-one million items were stamped, providing £334 141 in revenue (the public spent £3.2 million pounds on the remedies). The tax was doubled during the war, and thereafter Parliament spent more time discussing whether this imposition was fair than in debating the recommendations of the Select Committee. In 1926 the duty raised was £1.34 millions—‘a sum not to be despised in a time like the present’ said the Minister of Health.

SECHEHAYE AND ‘AN ENGLISH PHYSICIAN’

Stevens served with distinction in the Royal Flying Corps during the war, ending up as a major. The cure presumably continued in production and the next significant event was publication of The Treatment of Tuberculosis with Umckaloabo (Stevens' Cure)2 by Dr Adrien Sechehaye from Geneva. Originally written in French it was translated into German, Rumanian and English. The English version (Figure 2) was published in 1930 and accounts for my interest, in that I purchased a copy in a Cumbrian bookshop, and on opening it found a letter from the publishers to the editor of the West Cumberland Times, requesting a review. The contents seemed a bit too medical for readers of that newspaper and I wondered what was behind it. Sechehaye, who disclaimed any meeting with Stevens, recounted the history of the cure, and then described how he had used it since 1920. The results in his first patient were so good he had shown her to a meeting of the Geneva Medical Society. Altogether he had treated 800 patients, and wrote in detail about 64. He concluded that, while not infallible, the cure was a definite advance in treatment of tuberculosis. In 1931 a companion book (Figure 3), Tuberculosis, its Treatment and Cure with the Help of Umckaloabo (Stevens)3 was published by ‘An English Physician’ (MRCS, LRCP, 1893) said to be the medical correspondent of a prominent British newspaper. Fifty-five case histories were presented in reasonable detail. All patients were now well, many certified free from tuberculosis; however, none of them had been treated by the author—merely assessed at a single visit. The text is much more readable than Sechehaye's, as might be expected from a journalist. Patients are identified by numbers from 385 to 8332, these presumably being the ‘Stevens’ numbers—in which case the book was probably written at his instigation. By this time production of the ‘cure’ in Wimbledon (Figure 4) was in full swing, employing 50 people occupying three houses, two on Worple Road and a third nearby. A package insert describes three formulations—a lozenge, an extract (with alcohol and glycerine) and capsules of pure ground root; chichitse was no longer listed.



Figure 2
Sechehaye (1930)











Figure 3
‘An English Physician’ (1931)











Figure 4
Correspondence from Wimbledon (1939)

The two books, with a later book and a pamphlet from Sechehaye, were published by B Fraser and Co, of Cottenham Park, London, but in many of the books and advertisements the publisher's address is blacked out. Was it changed? What else did Frasers publish? Internet searches of second-hand book sales reveal only these four. Many copies contain a red label stating where the medicine can be obtained. Sechehaye's book does not seem to have been reviewed in the West Cumberland Times, but my copy of the ‘English Physician’ came together with reprints of articles dated 1931-2 from The Lancaster Guardian, The Nottingham Journal, The Chemist and Druggist of Australia, and Health and Strength, all praising the cure; in one Major Stephens is described as having had a distinguished war career and being ‘well known on the turf’.

DID THE CURE WORK?

Despite opposition from the medical establishment, Stevens and his cure prospered, and he continued to fight for recognition. In The Doom of 150 000 People4 in 1931 the Minister of Health was castigated for allowing ‘condemnation without investigation’. Sir Waldron Smithers MP raised the question of umckaloabo in the Commons, and was told ‘there were insufficient grounds for investigating its value’. He was also on the Committee of Investigation on Treatments of Tuberculosis formed in 1935 following a visit of Sechehaye to London. The cure was mentioned during discussions on a private member's Bill on Medicines and Surgical Appliances (Advertisement) put to the House of Commons in 19365. Captain Elliston cited it as an example of the need for regulation, but had been shaken to receive 1350 letters from strong supporters of the remedy. He asked the secretary of the Joint Tuberculosis Council for a follow-up: of 604 individuals who had received the ‘cure’, 31 were untraceable, 137 had not been notified as having tuberculosis, 122 were working, 115 were ill, 62 were seriously ill and 77 were dead. The Bill did not get a second reading. Stevens was still selling in 1939 and in 1941 was again asking patients to lobby MPs against another threatened Government Bill. Since the cure was still being sold in 1953, this cannot have materialized—so, in the last analysis, he prevailed in his battle with Secret Remedies.

Did the cure work? Sechehaye observed in 1948 that, during the war when supplies were cut off, many patients relapsed6. One former patient whom I have personally encountered gives a very convincing story of being diagnosed after bronchoscopy in the late 1930s at the Hammersmith Hospital, of spending six months in the Colindale Chest Hospital languishing with fever and watching his friends die around him, but then taking the cure for two years (looked like dog biscuits), improving and now having an active and healthy old age; an X-ray taken in 1963 showed old scars of tuberculosis. This individual is critical of the Government's refusal to take up the repeated offers of a trial, and notes that several relevant Government documents (PRO, MH 55/1170, 1171) remain on the Official Secrets list despite being originally scheduled for disclosure in 2002. ‘Google’ currently lists 266 items under umckaloabo. Most relate to a cure for coughs and chest conditions on sale in Germany. The plant has been identified as a Pelargonium species, and modern biochemical analysis reveals coumarins and other chemicals with some antibacterial activity. A team under Dr P Taylor at the London University School of Pharmacy is investigating the antimicrobial activity; some definitely exists, although whether it includes mycobacteria remains to be seen. Sechehaye thought that the drug might be an immunostimulant. Many questions remain unanswered. What were the findings of the Committee of Investigation on Treatments of Tuberculosis? Why did the Minister of Health refuse to investigate? What is in the secret documents? Just how many patients did Stevens treat, and what was the outcome?

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Prof J Hamilton Miller and Dr P Taylor for encouragement, and to Mr P Learney and Dr Thomas Dormandy for valuable data.
References
1. British Medical Association. Secret Remedies: What they Cost and What they Contain. London: BMA, 1909.
2. Sechehaye A. The Treatment of Tuberculosis with Umckaloabo (Stevens' Cure). London: B Fraser & Co, 1930.
3. ‘An English Physician’. Tuberculosis, Its Treatment and Cure with the Help of Umckaloabo (Stevens). London: B Fraser & Co, 1931.
4. Anon. The Doom of 150 000 People. London: Reason Publishing Company, 1931.
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Articles from Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine are provided here courtesy of
Royal Society of Medicine Press

South African Yam Under Threat

Unique yam under threat

Only two populations of this South African species are known in the wild.
“This is the most unique and unusual yam I have come across, and probably the most threatened”


Kew yam expert Dr Paul Wilkin










Botanist Linda Loffler monitoring Dioscorea strydomiana (Image: John Burrows)








One of Kew's most striking new recent discoveries is Dioscorea strydomiana - a critically endangered species from South Africa. There are only two populations of about 200 plants known in the wild. This species is regarded as a cancer cure in the region where it grows, and is consequently under threat from over-collection by medicinal plant collectors who cut pieces off the tubers. Dioscorea strydomiana does not look like a typical yam – it is shrub-like in appearance with a huge, slow-growing, lumpy wooden tuber above the ground measuring up to 1m in height and diameter. The tuber sprouts multiple shoots each spring.

For more information:

The Indepedent: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/treasure-trove-of-nearly-300-new-plants-discovered-by-kew-experts-1847215.html

The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/22/kew-gardens-new-plant-species