OK, I have no way of know if this is real but it is interesting.
From EXPRESS, Home of the Daily and Sunday Express
Published 3/9/2015
Plant with similar effects to cocaine and LSD could be key to diabetes cure, claim experts
(Also appears on www.HealthlineNews.com)
Scientists found that harmine can “regenerate” pancreatic cells. Loss of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas has long been recognised as a cause of Type 1 diabetes.
In recent years, scientists have concluded it also contributes to Type 2 diabetes.
The drug derived from the harmal plant, found in the Middle East, and from some South American vines, tripled the number of beta cells, according to the study in the journal Nature Medicine online.
Dr Andrew Stewart, director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine (Mount Sinai Hospital in NY), said: “We believe these results represent a key step toward more effective treatment of diabetes.”
So, what do we know about harmine?
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmine
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
- Harmine: hallucinogenic alkaloid found in the seed coats of a plant (Peganum harmala) of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, and also in a South American vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) from which natives of the Andes Mountains prepared a drug for religious and medicinal use. Chemically, harmine is an indole hallucinogen that can block the action of serotonin (the indole amine transmitter of nerve impulses) in brain tissue. Harmine occurs as the free alkaloid and may be converted to the hydrochloride salt, which is more soluble. Both are crystalline in form.
Just maybe bears watching?
