
Desert Creosote Bush Could Treat Giardia and “Brain-Eating” Amoeba Infections - protomyth
https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2017-08-15-compounds-in-desert-creosote-bush-could-treat-giardia-and-brain-eating-amoeba-infections.aspx
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pmoriarty
Whenever I read stories like this, I get really depressed because they remind
me of how many species humans have caused to go extinct, how many more they
have driven to the brink of extinction, and about the dire predictions of the
collapse of biodiversity.

Even setting aside the arguably much greater ethical and moral issues with
such extinctions, think of all the species that could have yielded remarkable
and useful secrets to us after proper research -- if they still existed.
Sometimes I wonder if by such wanton destruction is sealing its own doom.

Perhaps a cure to a some future cataclysmic disease outbreak might have lain
in a formerly living organism that can no longer help us because we killed it
off. Or maybe some revolutionary new material could have been inspired by an
extinct species, had we only been able to study it.

~~~
ams6110
The vast majority of all extinctions on the planet occurred before humans had
anything to do with it.

~~~
Avshalom
That doesn't change the number of interesting chemicals we've missed from our
own incuriosity/destruction.

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HarryHirsch
Polyphenols? Far too often you see inexperienced medical researchers who
stumble across a polyphenol while screening natural products and think they've
found a viable lead compound. This class of compounds is an unselective binder
(plants have evolved tannins to denature any protein, including those in
fungal plant pathogens) and impossible to elaborate. The SGLT inhibitors
developed from phlorizin are an exception. You'd expect better from UCSD,
though.

~~~
gus_massa
From the research article:

> _We previously developed a high-throughput screening CellTiter-Glo ATP
> bioluminescence-based assay to assess antiparasitic activity [48], and used
> this assay to test compounds 1–9 against the trophozoite stage of E.
> histolytica, G. lamblia, and N. fowleri. Compounds 1–6 displayed dose
> response antiparasitic activity against all three pathogens by reducing the
> culture density by 50% (EC50) compared to untreated trophozoite cultures
> (Table 3)._

If I am translating it correctly, they only tested this in vitro (not in rats,
not in humans). So, as you say, this may not be useful to cure us. Relevant
xkcd [https://xkcd.com/1217/](https://xkcd.com/1217/)

~~~
HarryHirsch
It's grape season! I've got a few scuppernog vines (that's the grape native to
the US, _Vitis rotundifolia_ ) in the yard. They are bearing grapes
plentifully. Scuppernogs have a thick skin, much thicker than the European
kind ( _V. vinifera)_ , with astringent flavour (that's polyphenol tannins) .
When you look at the surface closely you see little corky spots, where the
hypersensitive response took place, a defense mechanism in plants against
fungal infection. The tannins denature cellulase enzymes that are secreted by
fungal hyphae in their attempt to invade cells, and cork is dry and just
plainly indigestible.

Indeed, scuppernogs have an excellent reputation for disease resistance. The
xkcd is very relevant, also for grapes.

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spraak
Creosote is amazing! It's responsible for that "desert rain" smell. There is
also King Clone, "estimated to be 11,700 years old, making it one of the
oldest living organisms on Earth" [1]

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Clone](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Clone)

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mythrwy
I've heard creosote bush was used by Native Americans and early settlers as
medicine for a lot of things.

It must have some properties, it grows in unbelievably dry and hot areas and
nothing eats it. It doesn't seem to be susceptible to fungus or rots or really
anything I've ever observed.

And if this has anything to it, there is a whole lot of creosote stretching
from West Texas to California that isn't much good for much else. Except
making the desert smell wonderful when light rains pass through.

~~~
Avshalom
Oryx eat it. We know this because some jackass decided to import a herd to New
Mexico.

~~~
mythrwy
Interesting.

Wonder what a creosote fed Oryx steak tastes like? And presumably free from
brain ameoba as well!

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notadoc
How many treatments and cures for countless diseases and conditions are
floating around in nature undiscovered? And how many of those helpful
organisms, plants, microbes, are being destroyed by human activity? It is
probably staggering.

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baybal2
>Treat Giardia

Send that bush to China now! I have yet to know anybody who lived in a big
city in China and never had it

