Mohd Mahalim wrote:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pact Signed to Test Coco Oil for AIDS Treatment

Feb. 18, 1999, Manila – The official agreement covering the first clinical
tests using coconut oil and its fatty acid, monolaurin, to treat HIV/AIDS
patients has been signed. The memorandum of understanding among the three
agencies doing the clinical tests – the Philippine Coconut Research and
Development Foundation (PCRDF), United Laboratories and the San Lazaro Hospital
- was signed yesterday, making possible the first medical research in the
Philippines against AIDS.
PCRDF Chairman Maria Clara Lobregat told reporters that government will not
spend a single centavo with this trial, and it will determine the efficacy of
coconut chemicals. Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez said the trial needs
approval and protocol, and institutional ethics review board will assess issues
on using human subjects for research purposes. He welcomed the fact that the
government will not shoulder the expenses for the tests. “It is very expensive,
but since the DOH does not have that kind of money and the private sector does,
then we can ask patients to participate,” he said.

The tests involve 15 Filipino patients: 12 females and three males in the early
stages of HIV infection. Tayag said the trial seeks to achieve what experts in
the United States have found out in research – - that coconut chemicals increase
the CD4 cell count and lower the viral load of HIV patients to undetectable
levels. Dr. Eric Tayag, chief epidemiologist of the hospital, said the CD4
cells are the body’s first line of defense against infection and disease, but
they are also the first to be attacked by the HIV. The viral load is the amount
of the virus in the blood. It will cost the 15 patients P300,000 each in
coconut oil and monolaurin capsules, but he said this will not cost the hospital
anything.

Dr. Conrado Dayrit, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology
and a member of the PCRDF board, explained that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
has a fatty envelop, and monolaurin can penetrate and dismember this envelop
rapidly when ingested. Monolaurin is a substance derived from lauric acid, a
component of the coconut. It is the most important and most effective component
of coconut oil. “It disrupts the membrane coating the envelop by softening it
first. If this happens, the virus will die,” he said.

The PCRDF is funding the trial, but United Laboratories will receive the
technology of processing the monolaurin capsules. (Philippine Headline News
Online)

Website: www.bio-asli.com/?id=mahalimccc