Here is the article:

Catherine Mgendi
Nairobi

Local researchers have identified a plant whose sap can effectively treat skin infections caused by the herpes virus without causing any side effects, a conference on infections control heard recently.

According to Mr. James Muthotho, a microbiologist with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), the plant has been shown to "virtually cure" herpes zoster, an itchy, painful skin infection characterised by blistering.

Herpes zoster is caused by the varicella virus, which also causes chicken pox in children, according to medical experts. It is boosted by a depressed immunity, mainly resulting from HIV infection as well as from cancer drugs and radiotherapy, doctors say.

The frangipani plant's extract also treats the less traumatic herpes simplex which manifests itself as recurrent cold sores around the mouth, Mr. Muthotho says. He unveiled these findings during the recently concluded scientific conference of the Infections Control Association of Kenya held in Nairobi.

Mr. Muthotho says they have been studying the efficacy of the frangipani plant, plumeria rubra of the Apocynaceae family, for the past five years, and have successfully treated more than 130 people suffering from herpes zoster.

The plant, which can grow more than two metres high and is vegetatively propagated through the use of cuttings, is commonly referred to as the 'peace plant' as it is most commonly found in graveyards.

The frangipani sap, Mr. Muthotho says, stops the itchiness of herpes zoster sores, healing them without leaving any scars. It also kills the intense, recurrent post-treatment pain, and prevents recurrence, unlike the conventional drugs.

The microbiologist says the sap works by permeating the nervous system cells to kill the herpes zoster virus eradicating the pain, and any possibility of recurrence.

"During application, one experiences a burning sensation. However, within 10 to 20 minutes, the pain in the lesions reduces dramatically," he says.

He adds that conventional medicines only dry up the blisters and do not exterminate the virus, thus the recurrence of pain.

"The lesions heal without scar tissue formation or secondary bacterial infections," he says. "The drug Ipan (the plant sap) is safe and efficacious."

In some people, Mr. Muthotho says, herpes zoster infection causes restricted chest movements during breathing, which clear within two hours of applying the sap.

A negative blood test means you don't have antibodies. This could either mean that you don't have herpes, or that you were recently infected and haven't made enough antibodies to show up on the test yet. It's best to wait at least 12-16 weeks before doing blood tests, to avoid getting false negatives.

I looked around on medline for plumeria rubra, and this is what I found. Nothing about herpes. I'd need to see some pretty convincing evidence to believe that it goes up the nerve and kills the virus. That's a much more extravagant claim than that it kills the virus on contact in a culture dish, which is how some herbs have been tested. This one sounds like something you wouldn't want to ingest.

1: J Ethnopharmacol 1991 Jul;33(3):289-92 Related Articles, Links

Traditional medicinal plants of Thailand. XVII. Biologically active constituents of Plumeria rubra.

Hamburger MO, Cordell GA, Ruangrungsi N.

Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612.

The compounds 1-6 were isolated from the heartwood of Plumeria rubra, following bioactivity-directed fractionation. Plumericin 1 and isoplumericin 2 displayed molluscicidal, cytotoxic and antibacterial activity, 4-hydroxyacetophenone 3 was weakly cytotoxic, whereas the remaining glycosidic isolates (plumieride, 4; 13-O-coumaroylplumieride, 5; protoplumericine A, 6) were inactive in all test systems.

PMID: 1921428

2: J Nat Prod 1990 Nov-Dec;53(6):1447-55 Related Articles, Links

Cytotoxic constituents of the bark of Plumeria rubra collected in Indonesia.

Kardono LB, Tsauri S, Padmawinata K, Pezzuto JM, Kinghorn AD.

Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612.

By bioactivity-directed fractionation, six cytotoxic constituents have been characterized from the bark of Plumeria rubra collected in Indonesia. Three iridoids, fulvoplumierin <1>, allamcin <2>, and allamandin <3>, as well as 2,5-dimethoxy-p-benzoquinone <4>, were found to be active constituents of the P. rubra petroleum-ether- and CHCl3-soluble extracts. Cytotoxic compounds isolated from the H2O-soluble extract of the bark were the iridoid plumericin <5>, and the lignan liriodendrin <6>. Each of these substances was found to demonstrate general cytotoxic activity when evaluated with a panel of cell lines composed of murine lymphocytic leukemia (P-388) and a number of human cancer cell-types (breast, colon, fibrosarcoma, lung, melanoma, KB). Five additional iridoids, 15-demethylplumieride <7>, plumieride <8>, alpha-allamcidin <9>, beta-allamcidin <10>, and 13-O-trans-p-coumaroylplumieride <11>, were obtained as inactive constituents. Compound 7 was found to be a novel natural product, and its structure was determined by spectroscopic methods and by conversion to plumieride <8>. The configuration of the C-4 stereocenter was unambiguously assigned for compounds 9 and 10, and certain nmr reassignments have been provided for compound 1.

PMID: 1965200

3: Med J Aust 1986 May 12;144(10):540-4 Related Articles, Links

Naturally occurring cardiac glycosides.

Radford DJ, Gillies AD, Hinds JA, Duffy P.

Cardiac glycoside poisoning from the ingestion of plants, particularly of oleanders, occurs with reasonable frequency in tropical and subtropical areas. We have assessed a variety of plant specimens for their cardiac glycoside content by means of radioimmunoassays with antibodies that differ in their specificity for cardiac glycosides. Significant amounts of immunoreactive cardiac glycoside were found to be present in the ornamental shrubs: yellow oleander (Thevetia peruviana); oleander (Nerium oleander); wintersweet (Carissa spectabilis); bushman's poison (Carissa acokanthera); sea-mango (Cerbera manghas); and frangipani (Plumeria rubra); and in the milkweeds: redheaded cotton-bush (Asclepias curassavica); balloon cotton (Asclepias fruiticosa); king's crown (Calotropis procera); and rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandifolia). The venom gland of the cane toad (Bufo marinus) also contained large quantities of cardiac glycosides. The competitive immunoassay method permits the rapid screening of specimens that are suspected to contain cardiac glycosides. Awareness of the existence of these plant and animal toxins and their dangers allows them to be avoided and poisoning prevented. The method is also useful for the confirmation of the presence of cardiac glycosides in serum in cases of poisoning.

PMID: 3086679

...and I still couldn't find anything published about using it for herpes.

http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/220499/Letters/Letters2.html

Letters
Thursday, April 22, 1999
The facts on herpes treatment
We refer to an article on the use of herbal medicine for the treatment of herpes zoster in the Horizon Section of the Nation (DN, Mar 25).

It is important to clarify a few points that were unclear and one incorrect one in the article.

You reported that Mr Muthotho discovered the use of frangipani for the treatment of herpes zoster. Mr Muthotho is not the discoverer of this herbal treatment.

He has been and is still working with the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi's Eastern Deanery CBHC & Aids Relief Programme.

It is this programme which discovered the use of this herb for the treatment of herpes zoster.

More than 800 patients have been treated since we began dispensing this medicine, with effective results as stated by Mr Muthotho in his paper.

The basic information about the use of this medicine for the treatment of herpes zoster was reported more than three years ago to our donors.

The information has also been given out at different international conferences, which we have attended.

Mr Muthotho, under the leadership of Dr Davy Koech, the director of Kenya Medical Research Institute, has been able to stabilise the shelf life of the milk from the plant for up to 10 days.

This type of chemical analysis we would not have been able to do. We really appreciate the continuing laboratory analyses being done by Mr Muthotho and Kemri.

One area we feel it is important to correct is the name that your reporter used for the species of frangipani. There are two species of frangipani, plumeria rubra and alba. Unfortunately, your reporter cited the wrong species in the article, plumeria rubra. The species, plumeria rubra, is highly toxic and can cause cardiac arrest.

Finally, the title of your article, "Local cure for herpes found," was incorrect. The correct position is that there is no known cure for herpes zoster.

The herbal medicine only treats the external symptoms by relieving the pain and drying up the lesions.

With so many dubious claims these days of medical cures, we feel it is extremely important that the medial information is stated clearly and correctly.

Again, we congratulate the Nation for publishing such an informative article. We hope you will correct the apparently unintentional errors which appeared in the article.

Alice Njoroge,

The Rev Edward Phillips M.M.,

Nairobi.

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A country with "excess mortality due to AIDS," whose death rate is higher than its birth rate, with a life expectancy of 48 years old, and 6.7% of the population living with HIV (as opposed to 0.6% in the U.S.).

Where people get diarrhea from drinking the water, typhoid fever occurs regularly, and where malaria risk can be high. With an economy hampered by corruption and an unemployment rate at a whopping 40% (ours is 5.1%).

Sounds like they have all the resources in the world to come up with a cure for a virus that doesn't even hit the radar screen of the minds of most people. And given that they have such a high rate of HIV infection, I can see that their priorities would be better focused on herpes anyhow. I can't wait to see what will come next from Kenya!

If you can't see the sarcasm dripping from the letters of this post, then I encourage those of you who are seeking a cure: consider the source. And for your sake find peace with your life as it is. This might be the only one you get.

~Della

It's easier to tell yourself you're not good at something. Safer to believe you aren't clever or quick. Because if you had confidence enough to try something, you had to have courage enough to fail.

To her surprise, the irritation cleared up straight away, and although her arms were a little sticky from the sap, they were healed, and didnt irritate her again.

Upon further investigation of the healing properties of the frangipani plant, she discovered connections between the sap and the healing of the herpes zoster virus as well (most common form is shingles.

A short while later, a friend and neighbour broke out in painful shingles on her back and shoulders only a month or so before her wedding. Her wedding dress was an off-the-shoulder number, and she was extremely terrified that she would look a fright on her wedding day! On recommendation from my mother, she decided to rub frangipani sap into her shoulders and back (quite skeptically, might I add!). The shingles cleared up almost immediately, leaving no marks or scarring before her big day.

A little while ago i was diagnosed with genital herpes. The doctor had put me on a course of Valtrex, but being extremely upset and emotional I called my mum to cry the bad news to her in the hopes that she might have some idea of what i could do to treat it.

She suggested that i try frangipani sap, directly onto the affected area.

After a late night raid of neighbours yards (frangipani trees are popular here) i had enough to begin a treatment.

Almost immediately i noticed the severity of the pain had lessened. After two more 'treatments' that very day, the sores (which had been at the most painful, raw, open stage) had COMPLETELY disappeared!! No scabbing, no scarring, they just WENT!

Now I was on the Valtrex medication at the same time, but I had been on the treatment for a week with no difference to the sores, and only within 1 day they had completely disappeared after using the sap.

Since then (a few months ago) I have had absolutely no repercussions, and nothing to suggest that I will outbreak again. Fingers crossed of course, it will take a lot longer to see this as some people outbreak rarely anyway. But I believe it has gone for good. And I do believe that if the frangipani sap really is a cure to some herpes viruses, it will never be information freely offered to the public. Think about how much money you pay for your treatments from your doctor & pharmacies, and I'm sure you will realise why.

It is extremely easy to try frangipani sap, and really is quite harmless. So as long as you dont mind being a little bit sticky, I recommend it to EVERYONE who is suffering from a herpes outbreak to try, as it really did help me...