Stibogluconate for leishmaniasis.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Jahan.
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Neurolathyrism is a neurological condition seen among people who eat the seeds of Lathyrus sativus (LS) as a principal source of food energy for 2 months or more. It is characterized by severe muscular rigidity and paralysis of the lower limbs. beta-N-Oxalyl-L-alpha,beta-diaminopropionic acid is the principal toxin found in the seed. No experimental animal model for neurolathyrism could be produced by feeding either the seeds or the toxin, although the condition has been known for centuries. We discovered that experimental neurolathyrism could be produced in guinea pigs and primates that needed an external supply of ascorbic acid by making them subclinically deficient in ascorbic acid and feeding them the seeds of LS or extracts thereof. Autoclaving the seeds of LS with lime removes the toxin.
The effect of daily intravenous administration of 1000 mg ascorbic acid (AA) in tetanus patients aged 1-30 years was studied. In the age group of 1-12 years, 31 patients were treated with AA as additional to antitetanus serum, sedatives and antibiotics. It was found that none of the patients died who received AA along with the conventional antitetanus therapy. On the other hand, 74.2 per cent of the tetanus patients who received the conventional antitetanus therapy without AA (control group) were succumbed to the infection. In the other age group of 13-30 years, there were 27 and 38 patients in the treatment and control groups respectively. The mortality in the AA and control groups were 37 percent and 67.8 percent respectively. These results suggest that AA might play an important role in reducing the mortality of tetanus. This was supported by the fact that AA was found to mitigate the toxic effects of strychnine producing tetanus like condition in young chicks in the present study.