Riyadh: At the same time when the Fifa World Cup is being held in South Africa, another fascinating tournament of sorts has been held in Singapore — a "medical championship", so to speak, on broad beans.
Tens of scientists from all over the world presented and discussed research and papers in the first international conference titled: "Neuro Talk 2010: from Nervous Functions to Treatment", held from June 25-28.
Scientists and doctors from 30 countries discussed brain and nervous system malfunctions and diseases, Professor Mustafa Abdullah Mohammad Saleh, consultant neurologist at the College of Medicine at King Saud University in Riyadh, who attended the conference, told Gulf News.
He said the conference discussed the latest methods of treatment by gene and stem cell therapy.
"The conference discussed a paper on the scientific discovery we have recently made and which was published in the US medical journal about the therapeutic potential of broad beans in preventing epileptic fits," he said. Western news reports had earlier said that professor Saleh and his countryman, Ali Ahmad Mustafa, professor of pharmacology at the College of Medicine at King Saud University, had discovered that broad beans have a positive effect on epilepsy treatment.
Plant extracts
The two Sudanese scientists agreed in research on the treatment of epilepsy using plant extracts, to conduct joint research to decide the anti-convulsant substance in broad beans that prevents convulsions.
Professor Saleh's discovery about the characteristics of broad beans in treating epilepsy is currently being tested in the labs of Harvard University.
He said his discovery was sparked by his observation that epilepsy cases among schoolchildren in Sudan who eat foul (broad beans) for breakfast (and sometimes dinner) rated between 0.9 per cent and one per cent per 1,000.
This figure is remarkably lower than that in countries which do not eat broad beans like North and South America which was about 2.6 per cent per 1,000 students and other African countries which was two to three times higher than that of the Americas.
"This is how I got the idea that broad beans must contain a substance that protects against epileptic convulsions. I immediately started the research work with my colleague, Professor Ali Mustafa," he said.
Professor Saleh said they injected a group of mice with strychnine and picrotoxin, two drugs which cause convulsions leading to death, while they fed another group of mice with a fluid made of foul before giving them the two drugs.
"Convulsions and deaths from strychnine were decreased by about 66 per cent in the group of mice which were pre-treated with foul," he said.
Professor Saleh said the rate of protection was 100 per cent in the mice which were given both foul and valium before they were injected with strychnine.
He explained that following this and other experiments, a drop of broad bean concentrate was examined by a form of chemical analysis (chromatography) and compared with drops of phenobarbitone (anticonvulsant drug), valium and glycine substance.
"The drop of foul had the same speed as that of glycine," he concluded.
Professor Saleh had earlier discovered, along with other scientists, a new inherited gene which causes muscular myopathy. This gene has been named after him as ‘Salih myopathy'.
Should scientists look into people's lifestyle around the world for treatments on different diseases? Is this discovery proof that people should start eating less processed food and more whole food?
