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"African potato"



Greetings,

"African potato" is, I am told (I am not a botanist), Hypoxis hemerocallidea.
It contains sterols & sterolins and it seems to be effective against HIV,
perhaps acting as an immune system enhancer. A south African company called
Phyto Labs managed to do some fast-track research and it obtained a patent on
a refined version of H. hemerocallidea. Meanwhile, South African traditional
healers are using the natural plant for treatment of their HIV/AIDS patients.
The patented product is called Modu Care and is sold for around R122 in
pharmacies. Phyto Labs now mass-markets its African Potato product all over
south Africa and in other countries as an immune system enhancer to fight
AIDS.

A South African AIDS patient being treated by a "sangoma" (diviner-medium)
testified at the last global AIDS conference in Geneva that the natural
medicine helped him with HIV/AIDS symptoms more than the patented product.
The sangoma was at the conference too. She made a formal presentation about
the efficacy of the African potato in treating AIDS. As I recall, she
criticized Phyto Labs for "stealing the medicine" from traditional healers in
order to make money.

When I was in Swaziland a few weeks ago, I found that many HIV positive
people were using African potato. One civil servant friend of mine was
selling it at the office, during tea breaks. A Swazi sangoma I have known for
years told me that she found African potato effective for HIV/AIDS and for
standard STDs, but she said it was insufficient by itself for HIV/AIDS. She
used other plant medicines as well with AIDS patients.

Edward C. Green, Ph.D
2807 38th st, NW Washington, D.C. 20007
Fax (202) 338-9267
e-mail: egreendc@aol.com

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