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And this was used all over the world before modern medicine? 0.
Was it used locally? In all my reading I never once came across this Sangro de Grado. What exactly did it treat but not cure? Has it ever been compared to a modern antibiotic?
Not did. Does. It's still presently used widely in parts of Ecuador and Peru. Certain chemicals isolated from this tree latex (sap) were found to be useful in the treatment of HIV-associated diarrhea and is now, according to wikipedia, FDA approved for that use.
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It's never turned up in the history of medicine and alt meds that I've read. It may be something used in a small geographical area. I'm sure there are a lot of helpful natural treatments out there, but it doesn't change the fact that until modern medicine, including vaccines came along, all too many people died of diseases that are now very curable or preventable.
I found it in a quick google search of sangre de drago, as a notation that there are a couple of plants with that name, but that the one used in wound healing and with natural chemicals that were isolated in pharmacology coming from the tree, also spelled sangre de grado, that had the latin name croton lechleri.
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Are you talking about the pharmaceutical companies utilizing it?
Yes. Pharmaceutical companies have isolated chemical components of this tree sap and are using it in pharmacology presently. The isolated taspene has been used in pharmaceutical trials, along with other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, in the treatments of MG and other illnesses.
In the world of herblore (and aromatherapy, which is my personal field of expertise), the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" means that isolating individual chemicals can be detrimental, and make that isolated chemical -less- useful, than if it had been left intact, with the rest of the natural components.
The opposite is equally true: the sum of the parts of the whole, is lesser than the whole. You cannot combine phenols with alcohols, esters, and monoterpenoid compounds, to create a rose. It is not possible to recreate the flower, by combining its chemical components. Even though you can extract the chemical components and isolate them.
^"Taxon: Croton lechleri Müll. Arg.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 1999-08-30. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
^ Lopes, M. I. L. E.; Saffi, J.; Echeverrigaray, S. R.; Henriques, J. O. A. P. G.; Salvador, M. (December 2004). "Mutagenic and antioxidant activities of Croton lechleri sap in biological systems". Journal of Ethnopharmacology95 (2–3): 437–445. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2004.08.025. PMID15507372.
Not did. Does. It's still presently used widely in parts of Ecuador and Peru......
OK, that is a small area of the earth. If the compounds/components/whatever prevent and/or cure infection as well as our modern day antibiotics - great! Too bad no one knew about it in other parts of the world. Thousands died of injuries that became infected during the Civil War for example. Millions if not billions of women died worldwide due to childbed fever and infected tears to their reproductive organs since written history......
Today thanks to antibiotics available almost worldwide, death to infection, both internal and external, plus vaccines has been cut drastically. When only natural products were used, these people would have died.
It's not an antibiotic. I don't know where anyone is getting that from. Antibiotics are not the only things used in medicine. I've already specified what this plant sap is used for. And it -is- used in pharmacology in the US, which I have also specified and given you references for. It is used primarily in wound healing. Not curing or preventing infections. In -healing- wounds. As in - promoting skin growth.
Also - "modern-day antibiotics" come with their own pretty enormous set of headaches - from antibiotic-resistant bacteria *caused* the the proliferation and over-use of antibiotics - to allergies - to people who have taken so many antibiotics, that their bodies have become weak and can no longer build up natural antibodies to much of anything anymore.
Furthermore, many natural substances have natural antibiotic properties. Garlic is one. Tea Tree Oil is another. No, you wouldn't want to inject either into the bloodstream to cure a blood-related infection. But garlic oil is known even among western medical practitioners to be useful in treating mild outer-ear infections. And Tea Tree Oil is used more as a preventative on the skin, to cleans it and kill bacteria before it can build up and become an infection. Clove oil is useful to treat mild, non-invasive infections in the mouth PLUS it has the added bonus of numbing pain.
Clove oil was used by dentists for over a hundred years, until chemists isolated the eugenol out of the cloves and marketed that instead. But eugenol isn't used as an antibiotic. It's used primarily to numb the skin. It -is,- however, a disinfectant, as ALL essential oils are, to one extent or another.
Just because something isn't an antibiotic, doesn't mean it's not useful. White willow bark isn't an antibiotic, but if you have a headache and boil the bark in water and add a little honey, you'll end up with willow bark tea, which tastes like wintergreen and has a high content of salacylic acid - otherwise known as aspirin.
I'm not convinced on homeopathy though. I don't discount it entirely, because I just don't know enough about it to offer any opinion. It seems convoluted though. I mean I understand the concept of "like cures like." I get that. But at the dilutions homeopathy supports - it just doesn't seem plausable.
On the other hand - vaccines started out as homeopathic preventatives. That is essentially the _point_ of vaccines. You prevent diptheria, by introducing minute quantities OF diptheria into the body - and the body builds up natural antibodies, and thus can fight off an actual attack of the virus if it's ever exposed to it. The same with tuburculosis and pertussin and chicken pox and whatever else. That's what innocculations are, for all intents and purposes. And that is the premise of homeopathy.
I keep on hand in my truck or in the house some dried yarrow. I use it when ever I get a serious cut or wound. It is an antiseptic, anticoagulant and a pain reliever. I make a tea for a wash or use the powdered dried leaves or flowers to stop bleeding and to keep the wound clean. It has natural salacylic acid in it that numbs the pain. My most severe cut I healed with it was when I shot a large gauge rifle for the first time using a scope. I hit the target dead on, but the scope took out a divot in my eyebrow right to the bone. I packed the cut with dried yarrow to stop the flow of blood and a few days later when I flaked off the yarrow, there was already new tissue. A few years ago I put a landscape staple through my right index finger and its nail and used yarrow on it and it healed so well that there is no scar or tissue damage. My latest cut was yesterday morning while dicing potatos, I sliced the tip of my left thumb right off and my first move was to put dried yarrow on it to stop the bleeding. I was able to wash it by dinner time and it no longer bleeds and the fresh application of yarrow is keeping it clean and pain free. I am going to take daily pictures of my thumb to show the progress of its healing.
Today thanks to antibiotics available almost worldwide, death to infection, both internal and external, plus vaccines has been cut drastically. When only natural products were used, these people would have died.
And with the way those antibiotics have been abused, I'm sure they'll keep on working for us just like they have been all along. No need to keep looking to the natural world b/c we have all we need in the modern laboratories of today.
But I didn't hear anyone but you mentioning antibiotic properties--our Alaskan friend said that it was used to heal an infection on a friend's leg but it's possible that it was not infected or that the friend's body was strengthened enough to throw off the infection. I've had infections clear up on their own w/o AB, though they were not bad ones. I suppose, but I don't know for sure, that it might be possible to heal someone's compromised immune system enough to throw off a bad infection and if it is then that may be the medicine of the future.
BTW, I've done some extensive reading too and had never heard of it but that doesn't mean that I doubt its existence--I can't know it all. But why is it that you do such extensive reading on a subject that you care so little about? Are you looking for quackery?
OK, that is a small area of the earth. If the compounds/components/whatever prevent and/or cure infection as well as our modern day antibiotics - great! Too bad no one knew about it in other parts of the world. Thousands died of injuries that became infected during the Civil War for example. Millions if not billions of women died worldwide due to childbed fever and infected tears to their reproductive organs since written history......
Today thanks to antibiotics available almost worldwide, death to infection, both internal and external, plus vaccines has been cut drastically. When only natural products were used, these people would have died.
It's use would be more in the line of something that may help in the prevention of a wound getting worse and needing antibiotics.
It's mainstream enough to be on WebMD, and it's being used in tons of clinical trials.
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And with the way those antibiotics have been abused, I'm sure they'll keep on working for us just like they have been all along. No need to keep looking to the natural world b/c we have all we need in the modern laboratories of today.
I never said they weren't abused, because they are! Especially in farm food animals factory farmed. Looking for natural cures and treatments is a great idea. Who wouldn't be for that? But meanwhile something has to be used or tried. Whatever works.
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But I didn't hear anyone but you mentioning antibiotic properties--our Alaskan friend said that it was used to heal an infection on a friend's leg but it's possible that it was not infected or that the friend's body was strengthened enough to throw off the infection. I've had infections clear up on their own w/o AB, though they were not bad ones. I suppose, but I don't know for sure, that it might be possible to heal someone's compromised immune system enough to throw off a bad infection and if it is then that may be the medicine of the future.
I see a problem with that as when the immune system is compromised due to poor health or outright disease or serious infection.... there is no way to "heal" it. That's why so many people died in the past from injuries and things they don't die from today. Today we have those AB to kill off enough bacteria so the immune system can finally take over - if it can. Some people will die anyone if the infection is bad enough. And as you know, if it's a virus.... well, AB wont help that.
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BTW, I've done some extensive reading too and had never heard of it but that doesn't mean that I doubt its existence--I can't know it all. But why is it that you do such extensive reading on a subject that you care so little about? Are you looking for quackery?
Why not do extensive reading when the field of health and medicine are an interest of mine?
Thread previously entitled Homeopathic Options. Looks like the OP meant Holistic.
Last edited by in_newengland; 05-16-2013 at 12:07 PM..
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Too bad no one knew about it in other parts of the world. Thousands died of injuries that became infected during the Civil War for example. Millions if not billions of women died worldwide due to childbed fever and infected tears to their reproductive organs since written history......
But why is it that you do such extensive reading on a subject that you care so little about? 
Are you looking for quackery?
Holistic Options-Cancer
