Eight Horns

Eight Horns
2005.12.12 15:51

Swiss phermaceutical company Roche invented Tamiflu and the medicine was originally based on the lengthy study how to make use of one of the Chinese medicines or additives for food -this is long believed to be effective to some form of cold, the name of it is Eight Horns.
To have it directly does not prevent someone from having a cold but just resulting in feeling excited, but the company extracted, concentrated the effective ingredients and made into pills and now this medicine is regarded as one of the most effective medicines for flus.
There are many beliefs not only in the East but anywhere in the world as to which food is effective to some disease. But to collect these information, utilise them and invent a new drug is a totally different thing. West science overcame East tradition.
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Reminds me(Score:2)
by Stargoat (658863) <stargoat@gmail.com> on 2005.12.12 22:54 (#14237983) (Last Journal: 2005.12.11 6:09)
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of my mother-in-law in China. I had caught a terrible cold after a couple of days in Beijing, and it got worse on the train ride over to the city that was the final destination. While there, I visited a good number of my mother-in-law's friends in preparation to the wedding. She told me to take Chinese herbs and drink a special (extremely foul) tea. I wanted to leave, get over to the phamacist, and get some Tylonel Cold medicine. I was cranky after having been in China for ten days (I don't travel well), and said, "Chairman Mao used an iron lung broughy by Henry Kissinger." My mother-in-law (who did not necessarily like her friend) thought that the most witty thing she had heard all year.
--The hallmark work of man has been for the past eight thousand years creating a more accurate model of reality.[ Reply to This ]
Re:Reminds me(Score:1)
by mercedo (822671) * on 2005.12.12 23:55 (#14238438) (http://slashdot.org/~mercedo/journal/109855 Last Journal: 2005.12.18 0:58)
China has long history of nature based medicines - from botany, animals, bones, etc. On the other hands the West came up with synthesised medicines through scientific, chemical research & development. But probably those R&D are originally derived from a careful observation on the phenomenon of nature. We had a report that China's also trying to produce effective medicines from very large collections of Chinese nature based drugs. If they succeeded, we wouldn't need to use an iron lung to breeze the herb of very foul tea anymore.
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Re:Reminds me(Score:2)
by Farmer Tim (530755) <roundfile@mind[ ]s.com ['les' in gap]> on 2005.12.13 21:04 (#14245441) (Last Journal: 2005.05.02 12:12)
The West also has a long history of natural medicines, but this is often forgotten because of the growth of chemistry over the last couple of centuries. For example, aspirin (acetylsalicytic acid) is produced synthetically because the raw extract from willow bark or meadowsweet flowers is rather toxic*, but the pain killing properties of willow bark were noted by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC. St John's Wort and red clover are two other herbs used traditionally in the West that spring to mind.That said, there is a lot of bunkum in traditional medicines (I'm not singling out Chinese medicine here); there are plenty of examples where a reputed theraputic effect simply doesn't appear in epidemiological studies, and some cases where the side effects are greater than the medicinal value. The point I'm making is that natural doesn't automatically equate to effective or safe, but it is a very good place to start looking.*Fortunately, willow bark tastes terrible, so its very difficult to eat enough to cause major problems.
--The difficulties nerds have with the world stem from the fact that not all problems can be solved by nerdery.[ Reply to This Parent ]
Re:Reminds me(Score:1)
by mercedo (822671) * on 2005.12.14 0:57 (#14247099) (http://slashdot.org/~mercedo/journal/109855 Last Journal: 2005.12.18 0:58)
Thanks for the very useful information.
--Ancient Greek Philosophers -18c Enlightenment Thinkers -Slashdotters