{"id":2255,"date":"2021-10-12T12:42:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T12:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2021-10-17T13:15:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T13:15:17","slug":"covid-19-how-thailand-is-using-a-cheap-and-effective-traditional-herbal-medicine-to-treat-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=2255","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: How Thailand is using a ‘cheap and effective’ traditional herbal medicine to treat coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thailand’s government is using green chiretta to treat people with asymptomatic or mild coronavirus infections, following a trial in prisons which found that 99% of those who consumed the plant recovered.<\/p>\n

In Thailand’s fields, convicted criminals tend to a precious crop.<\/p>\n

In the blazing sun, in neon orange tops, they bend and scrape, painstakingly weeding the ground around neat lines of dark green plants.<\/p>\n

They’re growing green chiretta (Andrographis paniculate) – or Fah talai jone, as it’s called in Thailand.<\/p>\n

It’s a traditional herbal medicine commonly used in Thai homes to treat colds, but it is now playing a central role in the country’s fight against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Its properties help to reduce fever and coughing,” one of the prisoners tells me.<\/p>\n

In jail for drugs offences, the 31-year-old is now tasked with harvesting a plant which has been used to treat more than 69,000 other offenders with\u00a0coronavirus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“I feel proud to be looking after these Thai herbs that are used to help cure prisoners who have COVID,” he says.<\/p>\n

After his team snips and gathers all the mature stems, the plant is dried and ground by another group.<\/p>\n

The dark green powder is then packed into capsules before being shipped to other prisons nearby.<\/p>\n

In July, Thailand’s cabinet approved green chiretta for use in people with asymptomatic or mild coronavirus infections following a successful trial in prisons.<\/p>\n

The government claims that out of 11,800 inmates who took it to treat coronavirus, 99.02% recovered.<\/p>\n

A few miles down the road from where the plants are being harvested, Chainat jail is one of those using the herbal remedy.<\/p>\n

During an outbreak of COVID-19 in August, more than 700 inmates took 15 pills a day for five days.<\/p>\n

Staff say all of them recovered.<\/p>\n

Jail medic Chitsanuphong Saublaongiw believes the traditional tablet was effective in easing mild symptoms.<\/p>\n

“From the research, green chiretta has a substance called andrographolide, which is the substance that helps limit the spread of the virus,” he explains.<\/p>\n

“After taking green chiretta, the prisoners had better chest X-ray results, fewer symptoms, the disease was less severe, and they returned to normal quickly,” he adds.<\/p>\n

“Asymptomatic patients didn’t develop any severe symptoms.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Often overcrowded and cramped, the virus has spread rapidly in Thailand’s jails.<\/p>\n

Around a quarter of the country’s prisoners tested positive in the six months from April 2021.<\/p>\n

Severe infections are still treated with antivirals or hospital care, but cheap and available green chiretta has offered Thailand an alternative option for those in the early stages of COVID-19 at a time when the country has been tackling a surge in cases.<\/p>\n

“In prisons, we sleep close to each other, so we can’t [social] distance,” says Poj, one of those given the tablet at Chainat jail.<\/p>\n

His name has been changed to protect his identity.<\/p>\n

“I had a high fever, then after taking green chiretta, the fever reduced,” he explains. “[My] sore throat and cough also reduced when I took green chiretta for five days.”<\/p>\n

Some 141 jails around the country now plan to produce 38 million green chiretta tablets by November. They’ll be used to treat more inmates.<\/p>\n

The government has also been trialling the treatment in some hospitals and is encouraging 24,000 villages to grow the crop, so they have supplies.<\/p>\n

“If we use modern medicine, the cost is 20 times, 30 times, 50 times higher… and in the prisons, it’s very crowded,” Somsak Thepsuthin, Thailand’s minister of justice, tells me at a chiretta event in Bangkok.<\/p>\n

“We must have this to treat people. If it’s a mild illness, we can use this medicine, as it’s inexpensive and effective.”<\/p>\n

But green chiretta isn’t a silver bullet to cure the world of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Thai authorities have only cleared it for use in mild cases – it doesn’t stop you from getting the virus, and it isn’t a substitute for a vaccine.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation’s list of recommended drugs to treat coronavirus doesn’t mention the herbal remedy.<\/p>\n

Critics in Thailand say more testing is needed to prove its efficacy.<\/p>\n

“Andrographolide is referred to as a substance found in green chiretta that helps suppress viruses and inflammation,” says associate professor Dr Mayuree Tangkiatkumjai, of the department of clinical pharmacy at Srinakharinwirot University.<\/p>\n

“However, COVID-19 is still a new emerging infectious disease, so there is no sufficient research to confirm that green chiretta can prevent and cure COVID-19 yet.”<\/p>\n

While she supports people with colds using it at home, this is no replacement for antivirals in severe coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n

“The suitable amount of andrographolide for patients is still debatable, and it still needs further studies to verify its efficacy and side effects,”\u00a0<\/em>Dr Tangkiatkumjai adds.<\/p>\n

Two more trials of green chiretta involving COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms are being conducted on 1,400 people, with initial results due next spring.<\/p>\n

While Thailand has also been investing in revolutionary coronavirus vaccines and antivirals, green chiretta, a traditional herbal pill, has a new role in fighting a modern pandemic.<\/p>\n

Source: SIOBHAN ROBBINS, Sky News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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