Sickle cell disease: Antisickling herbs

If any of you reading this has sickle cell disease or knows someone who does, this may be of interest. A few days ago, one of my female African-American Facebook friends asked if I had ever been involved in the research or treatment of sickle cell disease. This was my response:

In answer to your question: I have not been involved in doing any kind of work on sickle cell disease. However, I am aware of progress that has been made in terms of screening for potential new drugs as well as genetic engineering experiments. This kind of thing, however, is years if not decades away from any sort of approval (After Phase I and then phase II studies are completed and a consensus as to safety & outcome is reached in the scientific & medical communities). I assume you know people touched by sickle cell disease and are interested in “here and now treatments”. Well, there are some from the world of herbal medicine, many having originated with African traditional healers with some of these having undergone phase I/II studies. I ran across a review paper covering this at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/…/P…/pdf/TSWJ2013-269659.pdf. Check it out, as they say.

What intrigued me was the antisickling activity of a Nigerian plant-based formula called “Ciklavit” (Perhaps you are acquainted with it). I did some digging and came up with a Pharma firm in Nigeria that sells Ciklavit: http://onlineorder.neimethplc.com.ng/…/ethica…/ciklavit/

I was also impressed by the reports on the antisickling activity of dried Papaya leaves which is sold OTC and cheap here in the USA. Swanson sells bottles f it for a pittance at http://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-premium-full…

Nota bene: I have no financial or other commercial interests in the Nigerian firm mentioned above nor Swanson vitamin company.

Choctaw Doc