Untapped potential for a Common Herb

Anesthesiologists, like many doctors, tend to be wary of herbal medicines. Just this year, several anesthesiology associates began a campaign to warn people facing surgery that their doctors needed to know if they were taking herbal remedies, since some could have dangerous interaction with anesthesia.

But now anesthesiologists have begun turning a herb to help treat a deadly and often intractable lung condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people a year.

The herb is borage, valued until now mainly for its slightly cucumberish taste and its eye-pleasing purple and pink flowers. The disease is acute respiratory distress syndrome, which can result from trauma (like a car accident), infection and other causes, and has a fatality rate as high as 70 percent.

Doctors have turned to an arsenal of weapons to cure it, some high tech, but have so far accomplished little. Now, researcher from the Mayo Clinic report that in a study of 150 hospital patients who had oil from borage seeds administered through tubes in their stomachs, the death rate from the respiratory syndrome dropped by about 35 percent.

A second study with a smaller group of patients had similar results, and researchers now plan further study. The findings were presented at a recent annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Researchers believe the benefits come from a component of the herb called gammalinolenic acid, which has natural antiinflamatory qualities.

"Excited would be an understatement," said Dr. Michael J. Murray, the Mayo anesthesiologists who conducted the study, when he was asked his reaction.

Science Times
The New York Times, Tuesday, October 26, 1999

Browse Library Item List